There are new canine on this battle.
This yr’s Nathan’s Well-known Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest is up for grabs after sixteen-time champion Joey Chestnut was banned from the annual July 4 showdown after signing a deal with vegan protein purveyor Unimaginable Meals.
“With Joey out, there’s a fairly massive door open,” mentioned Nick Wehry. He’s considered one of 14 hopefuls who will likely be competing within the males’s occasion on the well-known Coney Island showdown. (One other 14 eaters will face off within the ladies’s occasion.)
To be eligible to compete, eaters should win a regional qualifying occasion, have been a previous champion or be specifically invited by Main League Consuming, the group that oversees aggressive consuming occasions.
Opponents have 10-minutes to eat as many sizzling canine and buns as they’ll on the stage at Stillwell and Surf Avenues. Utensils and condiments are banned. Vomiting is grounds for disqualification. Any franks in a competitor’s mouth on the buzzer depend in direction of the overall, as do partial wieners.
Final yr, Chestnut gained by consuming 62 canine; in 2021, he set a report by scarfing 71 hyperlinks. (This yr, after being ousted from Nathan’s, he will likely be collaborating in a special sizzling canine competitors with troopers in Fort Bliss, Texas.)
At stake is $20,000 in prize cash — $10,000 every for the winners of the lads’s and girls’s occasions.
Miki Sudo, 38, claimed the ladies’s title in 2023, her ninth championship. She instructed The Submit that this yr “goes to be extremely thrilling” with Chestnut out.
“I feel it is going to be a canine battle which may even be gained by 1 / 4 of a sizzling canine,” mentioned Sudo, who holds the ladies’s world report, inhaling 48.5 sizzling canine in 10 minutes. “With Joey out, you’ll mainly see 5 – 6 guys actually actually push one another.
Take a look.
Nick Wehry
Age: 35
2023 Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest Efficiency: 4th place, ate 45 sizzling canine
Profession spotlight: Setting a world report in 2021 by consuming 50 hardboiled eggs in 3 minutes, 4 seconds
“This will likely be my seventh yr competing, I’m climbing,” mentioned Wehry, who relies in Tampa, Florida. In his early years within the contest, he positioned within the backside half, however, in 2021, he got here in third — his greatest displaying up to now. The previous two years, he’s are available fourth.
One half of an influence consuming energy couple — he’s engaged to Sudo after they met within the resort fitness center on the morning of the new canine contest in 2018 — Wehry competes full time, permitting him loads of time to coach.
He’s been working towards by consuming as many sizzling canine as he can within the muggy yard of his Florida dwelling.
“The humidity is 1000% and it’s been a billion levels … the physique doesn’t operate tremendous nicely, particularly in the event you aren’t used to it,” he instructed The Submit. “Individuals overlook that we aren’t simply consuming sizzling canine, however we’re pushing our our bodies.”
Wehry hopes the cruel circumstances will give him a bonus in Brooklyn, the place the forecast for Thursday is within the early 80s.
“It’s going to make Fourth of July on Coney Island really feel like a bit of cake,” he mentioned.
Geoffrey Esper
Age: 49
2023 Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest Efficiency: 2nd, with 49 sizzling canine
Profession spotlight: Consuming 21 kilos of strawberry shortcake in 8 minutes in June 2023 to set his third report with strawberry shortcake
For the previous three years, the Oxford, Massachusetts, high-school instructor has are available second to Chestnut, so this might lastly be his time.
“If I get second place once more I’m going to be like, ‘ah, not once more,’” he instructed The Submit. “It’s much more stress, I’ll let you know that.”
Given his instructing job, he doesn’t have as a lot time to coach as a few of his opponents, however he’s made up for it along with his robust work ethic and mastery of a standard frank-feasting method.
“I choose up two sizzling canine directly after which eat them, after which I eat the buns,” he mentioned. “I put the new canine facet by facet, and whereas I try this, I dunk the primary bun, and generally I may even squeeze it to get the water out.”
He notes that the new canine occasion, in comparison with different aggressive consuming, is as a lot about pace as it’s abdomen capability.
“This isn’t as simple as different races like strawberry shortcakes the place whoever has the most important abdomen wins,” he mentioned. “It’s a must to focus on what you’re doing to eat a lot.”
Chestnut’s exit has thrust him into the highlight, a place he doesn’t love.
“These different guys go nuts in entrance of the digital camera,” he mentioned. “I’m a bit extra shy, so it’s extra intimidating for me.”
James Webb
Age: 35
2023 Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest Efficiency: third, with 47 sizzling canine
Current spotlight: Final month, he set a report by downing 70 glazed donuts in 8 minutes
The complete-time aggressive eater from Sydney, Australia, holds world data for hen wings and donuts, however that is solely his third sizzling canine consuming contest.
“As an Australian, we don’t actually eat sizzling canine,” he instructed The Submit. “This has been a large tradition shock and studying expertise for me.”
The key to his success goes to the fitness center as a lot as attainable. “I do weight coaching morning and evening daily to stimulate starvation,” he mentioned.
Frankfurters are onerous to return by in Oz, so he needed to journey to the US to arrange.
He flew to Dallas, Texas, and acquired an Airbnb a couple of weeks in the past to start out working with Nathan’s Sizzling Canine forward of the vacation contest.
“I’m going to Walmart, empty the cabinets and cook dinner up a storm within the yard,” he instructed The Submit. “The final 4 days all I’ve eaten is sizzling canine. I simply observe, observe, observe,”
Don’t depend on him sneaking any franks with him on the airplane dwelling, although. He’s burnt out on barbecued wieners.
“I, 100%, is not going to be touching a sizzling canine till this time subsequent yr.”
Patrick Bertoletti
Age: 39
2023 Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest Efficiency: Didn’t Compete
Profession spotlight: Slurping down a report 39 dozen oysters in 8 minutes in New Orleans in June 2011
The Chicago native, who goes by the nickname “deep dish,” has been setting world data with every thing from blueberry pie to corned beef and cabbage for practically 20 years.
The longtime aggressive eater has taken half within the Nathan’s contest on-and-off since 2007, inserting as excessive as third place in 2010. After a while away from the Coney Island boardwalk, he’s again this yr along with his eyes on the prize.
Gideon Oji
Age: 32
2023 Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest Efficiency: sixth place with 36 sizzling canine
Profession spotlight: Consuming 1.3125 gallons of New Mexico inexperienced chile stew in 6 minutes in 2016
Oji is 6-foot-9 and weighs 225 kilos, making him one of many tallest aggressive eaters on the circuit. (No shock, the Morrow, Georgia, native performed faculty basketball at Clayton State College.)
He’s presently ranked seventh on the earth in general aggressive consuming and has excelled at some distinctive occasions, consuming two kilos of bologna in 52 seconds and crunching by 25.5 baggage of chopped kale salad in 8 minutes.
Darrien Thomas
Age: 25
2023 Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest Efficiency: ninth with 27.5 sizzling canine
Profession spotlight: Profitable Smoke’s Poutinerie’s newbie poutine-eating contest in 2017
May a Canadian truly take dwelling a coveted prize for a time-honored American custom? Thomas actually hopes so. In details, he’s solely the second Canadian to ever qualify for the competitors because it began in 1916.
Standing simply 5-foot-5 and weighing 155 kilos, he’s actually not as giant as different opponents. However, what he lacks in measurement, he makes up for with technical talent and a capability to dunk a sizzling canine bun in water at fast velocity. He’s additionally identified for his speedy talents shelling every thing from pistachios to crayfish.
Thomas acquired his begin on the age of 16 when he jumped right into a pizza-eating contest in Ontario after one of many contestants didn’t present up. Now, 9 years later, he’s ranked twelfth on the earth and no. 1 in Canada.
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