I love this contest. I was a Kobayashi fan before there was a Joey Chestnut. I’ve been watching this for a long time. My wife thinks it’s disgusting, but her manners came from Europe and she never was in a fraternity.
He’s the top dog for a reason.
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut gobbled his way to victory once again at the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest Saturday in Coney Island, scarfing down 66 wieners and buns in a dominant performance he said was hampered only by the scorching temps.
“Eating here on the Fourth of July is a dream; it’s electric. There’s no place better on Earth,” said Chestnut, wearing a gaudy, bejeweled Polymarket necklace, for the sports betting company, around his neck.
Joey Chestnut was the winner yet again at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest Saturday. Stephen YangThis victory marks Chestnut’s unrivaled 18th win at the 4th of July Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.
The win earned Chestnut, 41, his record 18th coveted Mustard Yellow Belt, the Stanley Cup to competitive eaters, and $10,000. It was his second consecutive title.
On the women’s side, Florida mom Miki Sudo captured her 12th championship belt by scarfing down a gut-busting 38.75 wieners.
The temperature at the start of the men’s contest was 90 degrees, and Chestnut admitted the weather took a toll on his high-octane eating.
Spectators gather before the start of the 2026 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest at Coney Island. AP Photo/Anna Connors
“I usually don’t have this much spare room left over, but we’ll see — something cold,” he said.
“It’s definitely hard. I didn’t want to go into it saying it’s going to affect me, I wanna go into it and convince myself that I can work through it,” he said.
“I didn’t want to let it bother me. I didn’t want to push it because if I push it, then things will get stuck in my throat and then I just needed to stay calm and keep going.”
After his win, Chestnut told The Post he still had room for dessert.
“I’m hungry, and it’s a beautiful day. This is going to be a great Fourth of July,” Chestnut told “Good Morning America” on Saturday morning. Stephen Yang
Chestnut, who has won 18 times out of 21 appearances at the internationally televised event, crushed the second-place winner, Patrick Bertoletti, 41, who managed 51 hot dogs, but was well shy of his own 2021 record of 76 wieners and buns.
In 2024, Chestnut was banned from the contest over his sponsorship deal with plant-based meat substitute company Impossible Foods, leaving Bertoletti the victor—and the first person since 2015 other than Jaws to win the contest, with 58 dogs and buns.
Defending champ Sudo, 40, said there was no way she was going to lose this July 4th — America’s 250th birthday,
When I was young, my Mom told me some people live to eat, while others eat to live.
Being an introvert, long ass meals are tedious for me. I just need something to fill up my stomach.
I also worked in an Italian restaurant that had real food based on recipes that came from the Mother Country, not just pasta.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve attended the three-hour business lunches in France, which often featured exquisite food. I’ve also gone hunting at 3 in the morning, and ridden in many 100-mile bike races that started at sunrise. I’d have to cram as much food as I could in the shortest amount of time, as I was on a deadline.
I know the difference between 5-star food, and reheated chicken and rice in the dark hours of the morning. I just need a proper meal (not fast food or processed) to get me to the next meal.
I bet some readers served in the military who ate some awful stuff, yet survived.
In contrast, my brother-in-law was the president of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and was obese for a good part of his life. He lived to eat and has failed at every diet and/or weight loss plan that exists. He now has health problems I saw coming decades ago. He also got the COVID-19 jab and has symptoms from that.
One last thing, I never miss the Hot Dog eating contest on July 4th. I’ve been a fan since Kobayashi was transforming the “sport”.
It’s baaaack!. The annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. I watch it as it grosses out my wife, but I can’t believe how many dogs they can eat in 10 minutes.
I’ve been a fan since Kobayashi made it famous when a skinny punk from Japan killed the competition. It was around the same time as Ken Jennings streak on Jeopardy.
The Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest is back, and famed competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut is hoping for a comeback 17th win on Friday.
The 41-year-old, from Westfield, Indiana, was not in last year’s event due to a contract dispute involving a deal he had struck with a competing brand, the plant-based meat company Impossible Foods. But now he’s back, saying things have been ironed out.
Patrick Bertoletti, of Chicago, won the title in Chestnut’s absence and is the defending men’s champion.
In the women’s competition, defending champion Miki Sudo, 39, of Tampa, Florida, is the favorite this year and is seeking her 11th title. Last year she downed a record 51 dogs.
The annual gastronomic battle, which dates back to 1972, is held in front of the original Nathan’s Famous’ restaurant at New York’s Coney Island and draws large crowds of fans, many in foam hot dog hats.
Competitors in the men’s and women’s categories chow down as many hot dogs as possible in 10 minutes. They are allowed to dunk the dogs in cups of water to soften them up, creating a stomach-churning spectacle.
The 15 men in the competition hail from across the U.S. and internationally, including Australia, Czech Republic, Canada, England, and Brazil.
The 13 women competitors are all Americans.
Chestnut set the world record of eating 76 wieners and buns in 10 minutes on July 4, 2021. He has won a record 16 Mustard Belts. Instead of appearing in New York last year, Chestnut ate 57 dogs — in only five minutes — in an exhibition with soldiers, in El Paso, Texas.
Not only that, Kobayashi downed a personal best of 66 in this contest. Either would have won Coney Island this year by a mile.
Joey Chestnut defeated longtime rival Takeru Kobayashi in a hot dog eating contest on Monday afternoon in Las Vegas, chowing down a world record 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Chestnut broke his own record of 76 hot dogs in 2022. Kobayashi finished with 66 hot dogs, his personal record.
“This is amazing,” Chestnut said afterward. “I’ve been trying to hit 80 hot dogs for years. Without Kobayashi, I was never able to do it. He drives me. We weren’t always nice to each other, but I love the way we push each other to be our best.”
It was the first meeting between the hot dog eating champions in 15 years.
“I feel like I did everything I could,” Kobayashi said.
Chestnut is a 16-time Nathan’s hot dog eating champion in the 4th of July competition on Coney Island in Brooklyn, which he was disinvited from this year after signing with rival hot dog maker Impossible Foods and its vegan hot dog.
Netflix live-streamed Monday’s contest, billed as “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef.”
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I got into competitive eating when Kobayashi was eating so many.
Does anyone else wonder about them having to take a dump the next day like I do?
I became enamored with this contest by phenom eater Kobayashi, a skinny kid from Japan who revolutionized competitive eating. It also grosses out my wife. That means I’ve been watching for decades.
Kobayashi was defeated by Joey Chestnut who will not defend his championship this year because of a conflict with the sponsor, Nathan’s hot dogs and others (see below). I’ll still watch, but we will be in the 30 or 40 dog range to win, versus the 60 to76 that we’ve been treated to by Chestnut.
his Fourth of July, Joey Chestnut will be doing what Joey Chestnut does better than any human being alive:
Eating hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog after hot dog…
And on and on, down the hatch, with stunning pace and a strange sort of grace.
Chestnut—aka “Jaws,” the Michael Jordan of competitive eating, the Picasso of Pork, the Federer of Frankfurters, the GOAT of bloat, a man who once ate a world record 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes—will spend the holiday competing casually alongside members of the U.S. military at Fort Bliss in Texas in a quickly-assembled event airing on his YouTube channel.
Though Chestnut is honored for the opportunity, the stunning news is where the 40-year-old won’t be–parked at a table outside Nathan’s Famous in Coney Island, N.Y., dominating a legendary hot dog eating contest he has won a staggering 16 times.
“Bittersweet,” Chestnut told me in an interview this week.
Behind Chestnut’s absence is a dispute involving his nascent relationship with Impossible Foods, the plant-based food maker. The partnership chafed the powers behind Major League Eating and the Nathan’s Famous competition, who felt Chestnut was getting cozy with a rival.
So Chestnut is out, casting a footlong shadow over the annual beachside showdown—and riling a fan base that can’t believe the iconic competition will happen without its signature stomach.
No Joey Chestnut in Coney Island on the Fourth of July? It’s like asking a bald eagle to stay home in the nest.
“Stop being such weenies!” New York City mayor Eric Adams wrote in a pun-tastic tweet.
“The entire country’s [expletive] bummed,” said ESPN’s biceps curl Cronkite Pat McAfee. “I don’t even know if people are going to light off fireworks now.”
“Let the guy suck down dogs!” McAfee pleaded.
Chestnut, who won his first Nathan’s event in 2007 and parlayed his talent into global fame and a full-time occupation, sounded plenty bummed by the conflict. He doesn’t see his relationship with Impossible Foods as a deal-breaker–he’s still a devoted carnivore who sees plant-based food as a supplement to his meat diet, not a replacement.
He compared it to Tom Brady endorsing Under Armour cleats and also Ugg boots–an interesting choice, given that Tom Brady would sooner eat an Adirondack chair than a meaty hot dog.
“You can eat meat and you can also eat plant-based meat,” Chestnut said. “I feel like that should be OK with people.”
Impossible Foods had no issues with Chestnut consuming meat products at the Nathan’s event–or anywhere else, said the company’s CEO, Peter McGuinness.
“He’s a flexitarian,” McGuinness said. “He is our target audience. We’re not a vegan company and we need to be appealing to meat eaters.”
Major League Eating’s president, Richard Shea, echoed Chestnut’s term to describe the situation: bittersweet. The issue was a brand conflict, he said. He went on to rave about Chestnut’s talent and indelible mark on the annual competition, which is televised by ESPN.
“We love Joey, we wish he was there, we support his choice and think it’s a cool tribute, what he’s doing with the troops in Texas,” Shea said. “He’s a great champion.”
After the initial dust-up, MLE and Nathan’s Famous offered to put aside their issues and allow Chestnut to participate in 2024 – but the offering couldn’t bring the hot dog Hoover vac back to the table.
The relationship may need further repair. Chestnut believed his team was still negotiating when the controversy spilled into view with a Major League Eating statement that they were “devastated” at Chestnut’s decision to partner with “a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs.”
Having the impasse go public felt like a gut-punch to Chestnut, the contest’s most identifiable winner, long ago surpassing the competitive eating godfather Takeru Kobayashi of Japan.
“It’s hard to rebuild trust once bridges have been burned a little bit,” Chestnut said.
Chestnut trains like an endurance athlete, with vigorous eating sessions to prepare him to push his physical limits. He practices breathing techniques to stay calm and loose and even asks people to come yell at him in practice to try and simulate a noisy contest environment.
The champion felt on pace for a potentially record-setting Fourth of July.
“It was definitely my best training in years,” he said.
While consuming even a half dozen hot dogs would curl me into a fetal ball for a month, Chestnut said he’s in good health. He said he gets his blood regularly checked, and that his doctor remains comfortable with his career choice.
“He told me whatever I’m doing, I can keep doing it,” Chestnut said.
After the event at Fort Bliss, Chestnut will turn his attention to a brand-new event–a showdown with storied rival Kobayashi to be shown on Netflix. Billed as “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef” the mano-a-mano gulletpalooza will go down on Labor Day, Sept. 2.
“I want to make him uncomfortable and he wants to make me uncomfortable,” Chestnut pledged.
As for a future return to Coney Island, the champ is trying to stay optimistic.
Can it really be the Fourth of July without Joey Chestnut dogging dogs near the Brooklyn boardwalk?
“I love that contest,” said the hot dog gawd. “I would do anything reasonable to make it back there.”
Delusions of Adequacy 