With Joey Chestnut out, it could be anybody who wins.
The 16-time winner will not take part in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2024, leaving room for a new champion to be crowned.
“It’s going to come down to one or two hot dogs,” former competitive eater Pablo Martinez, who is currently ranked 21st, told The Washington Post in an interview.
Chestnut, 40, is the current record holder, having eaten 76 hot dogs in 2021, and no one has managed to beat him.
He has won the contest 16 of the last 17 years, including the last eight years in a row.
Matt Stonie beat Chestnut, marking the first time another player has won since 2015.
Contest host George See said Australia’s James Webb, the No. 1 competitive eater in Australia and No. 5 in the world, was the clear favorite and fan favorite to win, and that without Chestnut the result would be “even.”
Webb, who weighed in at 213 pounds at Wednesday’s weigh-in, has won six of 10 Major League Eating events in the past six months, beating Chestnut. California pistachio eating contest earlier this year (in the same contest, contestant Nick Wherry also beat Chestnut).
“I want to be the first Australian to eat over 50 pounds at Coney Island,” Webb told The Post before the weigh-in, adding that he had been working for the past year to “build my track record” ahead of the competition.
Webb set a personal record of 47 hot dogs at Coney Island last year, but fell far short of beating Chestnut’s 62.
“No one knows him. [Chestnut’s] “For the record, it’s unfathomable to even think about doing that,” Martinez said.
Webb will compete against four other male contestants ranked by MLE among the top 50 eaters in the world: Riccardo Corbucci of Brazil, Patrick Bertoletti of Illinois, Nick Wherry of Florida and Jeffrey Esper of Massachusetts.
The five men will be attempting to make not 76, but more than 50 hot dogs in just 10 minutes, competing against soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas, on Independence Day.
“Three weeks ago, it looked like they weren’t going to win, but now they’re going to win,” Shea said Wednesday.
2024 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest Begins ESPN will broadcast the women’s competition at 10:45 a.m. ET.
The men’s competition begins at noon ET.
