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Joey Chestnut wins with 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
The sun was out, the mercury was rising, and a rock-concert-rowdy crowd of Fourth of July revelers gathered Sunday at Coney Island to celebrate life, liberty and the pursuit of hot dogs at the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. The atmosphere was a strange mix of sporting event meets Coney Island sideshow, with ESPN sports commentators sharing the stage with a showman emcee, and vuvuzela horns cheering on extraordinary feats of digestion.
When the 16 competitors were introduced, there was one notable absence: Takeru Kobayashi. The man who revolutionized the hot dog eating competition in 2001 would not compete because he refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating. To add to the drama, he was also arrested on Sunday after her tried to storm the stage.
With his biggest competitor on the sidelines, three-year champion Joey Chestnut easily shoved, jumped, twitched and twisted his way to a win, eating 54 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. It was nowhere near his record-breaking 68 hot dogs from last year, but it was a very comfortable lead on second place winner Tim “Eater X” Janus, who managed to choke back 45 Nathan’s Famous.
As the hot dogs were inhaled under the brutally a hot Fourth of July sun, one onlooker perfectly summed up the day’s emotions: “This is America,” he said.
By Lauren Huefner; photos by Natasha Ryan
