Throat GOATs Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo Win Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest
Hard to Swallow
They don’t call 17-time champion Joey Chestnut “Jaws” for nothing
The classic hot dog brand Nathan’s Famous has sponsored a Fourth of July hot dog eating contest since 1979, and, in recent years, the same two champions — Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo — have taken the title over and over again and set records along the way. In the field of wiener-scarfing, one could say this makes these two athletes the greatest of all time, or the GOATS.
On Friday, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut earned his 17th title in the men’s division by eating a contest record of 70 and a half hot dogs and buns, just shy of his 76-dog record set in 2021. The Indiana native was banned last Fourth of July because of a contract dispute with Nathan’s following his involvement with a competing brand, the plant-based meat company Impossible Foods. The Associated Press reports that although Chestnut admitted to striking a deal with the competitor and that he should have communicated it more clearly with Nathan’s, he didn’t appear in any commercials for Impossible, nor has he been sponsored by any other hot dog-specific companies.
Miki Sudo demolishes the competition. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
AFP via Getty Images
On the women’s side, defending champion Miki Sudo of Tampa, Florida, won her 11th title, downing 33 dogs, and beating out 12 others, including a mother-daughter pair. In 2024, Sudo ate a record 51 wieners. Both Sudo and Chestnut were apologetic about falling short of their prior glory. “I wish I ate a couple more. Sorry guys,” Chestnut told the crowd, per the AP, while many chanted his name. “I’ll be back next year.”
Similarly, Sudo reportedly told ESPN, “I feel like I let the fans down a little bit. I heard people in the crowd saying, ‘Go for 52…Obviously, I’m always setting my goals high, but the hot dogs weren’t cooperating. For some reason, the buns felt larger today.”
Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest takes place in front of the brand’s original restaurant on New York’s Coney Island, drawing feverish crowds. Competitors are allowed to dip the dogs in water to soften them up and make them easier to consume.
