Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest: Who won the 2023 competition and how many hot dogs did they eat?
One more edition of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest has ended. Who won the 2023 competition and how many hot dogs did they eat?
This July 4th, another edition of the traditional Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest took place on Coney Island.
This competition is one of the strangest traditions for celebrating Independence Day in the United States. Every year hundreds of people flock to Coney Island to witness yet another edition of this event where contestants gobble down an insane number of hot dogs, bun included.
Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest: Who won the 2023 competition and how many hot dogs did they eat?
Women’s competition
In the women’s competition, which began sharply at 11:00 a.m. ET, Miki Sudo claimed her ninth consecutive title by eating a total of 39.5 hot dogs in 10 minutes. She holds the all-time women’s record of 48.5 in ten minutes.
Men’s competition
The men's competition was scheduled at 12:00 p.m. ET, however, it started two hours later due to bad weather.
The winner of the contest, as expected, was multi-champion Joey Chestnut, who managed to ingest a total of 62 hot dogs in just 10 minutes, winning his 16th title in the competition and the eighth in a row.
Joey Chestnut failed to break his record
Although the Kentucky native was crowned the champion of the competition for the 16th time, the truth is that he did not manage to beat his own record set two years ago: Eating 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Thus the 4th of July hot dog eating competition was born
The contest originated in 1916 after a group of migrants argued over who was the most patriotic while dining at Nathan’s first hot dog restaurant in Coney Island.
Without thinking, the owner of the place offered a solution to the argument: Whoever ate the most hot dogs would be the winner and, therefore, the most patriotic. The anecdote quickly gained popularity among local residents, so Nathan decided to hold an annual contest.
In 2001, the Los Angeles Times wrote an article about the event and it grabbed the attention of ESPN, who took a gamble on the competition and acquired the television rights in 2003.