A new enemy has joined the battle.
The winner of this year’s Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest remains unknown after 16-time winner Joey Chestnut was barred from competing in the annual Fourth of July event after signing a deal with vegan protein supplier Impossible Foods.
“With Joey out, it opens up a pretty big door,” said Nick Wherry, one of 14 hopefuls competing in the men’s division of the famed Coney Island showdown. (Another 14 eaters will compete in the women’s division.)
To be eligible, contestants must win a regional qualifying event, be a past champion or receive a special invitation from Major League Eating, the organization that governs competitive eating events.
Competitors have 10 minutes to eat as many hot dogs and buns as they can on stages at Stillwell and Surf Streets. No utensils or condiments allowed. Vomiting is grounds for disqualification. Any frankfurters or half-full wieners in a contestant’s mouth when the buzzer sounds will count toward their total.
Last year, Chestnut won by eating 62 hot dogs, and in 2021 he set a new record by gobbling down 71 links. (This year, after getting kicked out of Nathan’s, he’ll be taking part in another hot dog contest with soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas.)
The total prize money is $20,000, with the men’s and women’s winners each receiving $10,000.
Miki Sudo, 38, will win the women’s singles title for a ninth time in 2023. She told The Washington Post that this year with Chestnut absent “will be an incredibly exciting year.”
“I think it’s going to be a tough battle, with the winner decided by a quarter of a hot dog,” said Sudo, the women’s world record holder who downed 48.5 hot dogs in 10 minutes. “Without Joey, it’s basically going to be five or six guys vying with each other.
please look.
Nick Wherry
Year: 35
2023 Hot Dog Eating Contest Performance: 4th place: ate 45 hot dogs
Career highlights: In 2021, he set a new world record by eating 50 boiled eggs in 3 minutes and 4 seconds.
“This is my seventh year competing, and I’ve been doing better,” said Wherry, who is based in Tampa, Fla. She went from placing in the bottom half of the competition when she first started, to third place in 2021, her best result yet. She placed fourth the past two years.
One half of the power-eating couple, Wellie is engaged to Sudo, whom she met in the hotel gym on the morning of the 2018 hot dog contest, and competing full-time means she has plenty of time to train.
He’s been practicing by eating as many hot dogs as he can in the steamy backyard of his Florida home.
“It’s 1,000 percent humidity, it’s a billion degrees, and your body doesn’t function very well, especially if you’re not used to it,” he told The Washington Post. “People forget that we’re not just eating hot dogs, we’re working our bodies hard.”
Whaley is hoping the tough weather conditions will work to his advantage in Brooklyn, where temperatures are forecast to be in the low 80s Fahrenheit on Thursday.
“It’s going to make Independence Day at Coney Island seem like a piece of cake,” he said.
Jeffrey Esper
Year: 49
2023 Hot Dog Eating Contest Performance: 2nd place: 49 hot dogs
Career highlights: In June 2023, he consumed 21 pounds of strawberry shortcake in eight minutes, setting a third Strawberry Shortcake record.
The Oxford, Massachusetts, high school teacher has placed second to Chestnut for the past three years, so maybe his turn has finally come.
“If I get second again, I’ll think, ‘Oh no, not again,'” he told The Washington Post. “There’s definitely a lot more pressure.”
Because of his job as a teacher, he doesn’t have as much time to practice as some of his competitors, but he makes up for it with a strong work ethic and mastery of standard Frank Feasting techniques.
“I’ll pick up two hot dogs at a time and eat them, then eat the buns,” he says. “I’ll put the hot dogs next to each other and dip the first bun in water while I’m doing that. Sometimes I’ll squeeze the bun to get the water out.”
He points out that compared with other speed-eating contests, hot dog contests are as much about speed as stomach capacity.
“This isn’t as easy as some of the other races, like strawberry shortcake, where the person with the biggest belly wins,” he says. “To eat that much, you have to really focus on what you’re doing.”
Chestnut’s departure has thrust him back into the spotlight, a position he doesn’t like.
“Other guys are so into it,” he said. “I’m a little bit shy, so I feel more intimidated in front of the camera.”
James Webb
Year: 35
2023 Hot Dog Eating Contest Performance: 3rd place: 47 hot dogs
Recent highlights: Last month, he set a record by eating 70 glazed doughnuts in eight minutes.
The full-time speed eater from Sydney, Australia, also holds world records for chicken wings and doughnuts, but this is his third hot dog eating contest.
“As Australians, we don’t eat a lot of hot dogs,” he told the Post. “This was a big culture shock and learning experience for me.”
The secret to his success is hitting the gym as often as possible: “I lift weights every morning and evening to stimulate my hunger,” he says.
Frankfurts are hard to come by in Australia, so he had to travel to America to get them made.
He flew to Dallas, Texas, and stayed in an Airbnb a few weeks ago to start working at Nathan’s Hot Dogs ahead of a holiday competition.
“I’m going to Walmart, clearing out the shelves, and cooking in my backyard,” he told The Post. “I’ve only been eating hot dogs for the last four days. It’s just practice, practice, practice.”
Just don’t expect him to sneak a frankfurter on the flight home: he’s sick of barbecue sausages.
“I will never touch a hot dog until this time next year.”
Patrick Bertoletti
Year: 39
2023 Hot Dog Eating Contest Performance: Did not compete
Career highlights: A record-breaking 39 dozen oysters were eaten in eight minutes in New Orleans in June 2011.
Nicknamed “Deep Dish,” the Chicago native has been setting world records for nearly two decades for everything from blueberry pie to corned beef and cabbage.
The longtime competitive eater has competed in the Nathan’s contest on and off since 2007, reaching third place in 2010. After a brief absence from the Coney Island boardwalk, he returned this year with a shot at the championship.
Gideon Oji
Year: 32
2023 Hot Dog Eating Contest performance: 6th place with 36 hot dogs
Career highlights: In 2016, 1.3125 gallons of New Mexico green chili stew were consumed in 6 minutes.
At 6-foot-9 and weighing 225 pounds, Orji is one of the tallest competitive eaters on the circuit. (It’s no surprise then that the Morrow, Georgia native played college basketball at Clayton State University.)
He is currently ranked 7th in the world in overall eating competitions, having excelled in unique events such as devouring two pounds of bologna in 52 seconds and consuming 25.5 bags of kale salad in eight minutes.
Darian Thomas
Year: twenty five
2023 Hot Dog Eating Contest performance: 9th place with 27.5 hot dogs
Career highlights: Winner of the 2017 Smoke’s Poutinerie Amateur Poutine Eating Contest
Could a Canadian actually take home the coveted prize in this long-standing American competition? Thomas hopes so. In fact, she is only the second Canadian to qualify for the competition since it began in 1916.
At 5-foot-5 and 155 pounds, he’s certainly not as big as some of his competitors, but what he lacks in size he makes up for with skill and an ability to dip hot dog buns in water at high speeds. He’s also known for his ability to quickly shell everything from pistachios to crawfish.
Thomas began his career at age 16 when he took part in a pizza-eating contest in Ontario after one of the contestants was absent. Now, nine years later, he is ranked 12th in the world and number one in Canada.
