Miki Sudo Breaks Hot Dog Eating Record For Women, Patrick Bertoletti Takes Record For Men : NPR

NEW YORK (AP) — Patrick Bertoletti of Chicago gobbled up 58 hot dogs to win his first men's title Thursday at the annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest and enjoy the event's biggest star eating them from 2,000 miles away.

Bertoletti won the race after a tight 10-minute race that saw the leader go back and forth. Bertoletti, 39, beat 13 competitors from around the world in a test to see who could gobble up the most hot dogs in 10 minutes.

“I wasn't going to stop eating until the job was done,” Bertoletti said.

Bertoletti broke his previous record of 55 hot dogs at the event, held every Independence Day on Coney Island in New York.

Defending champion Joey “Jaws” Chestnut did not compete this year due to a dispute with a sponsor. Instead, Chestnut will compete against soldiers at a U.S. Army base in El Paso later in the day. Chestnut has won 16 of 17 previous competitions.

Bertoletti said he lost weight and trained for three months with “urgency” to prepare for Thursday's event, believing he had a good chance of winning.

“With Joey out, I knew I had a chance,” he said. “I was able to unlock something that I don't know where it came from. But I'm not complaining.”

Earlier Thursday, defending champion Miki Sudo of Florida won her 10th title in the women's division.

Sudo consumed 51 hot dogs in 10 minutes, setting a new world record for women.

“I’m just happy to be able to say it’s mine for another year,” Sudo said after winning her 10th pink belt.

The 38-year-old dental hygiene student won last year after eating 39 and a half hot dogs.

Sudo beat out 13 competitors, including her 28-year-old rival, Mayoi Ebihara of Japan. Ebihara came in second after eating 37 hot dogs in 10 minutes. She was also a finalist in 2023. Sudo also outdid her partner, former Florida bodybuilder Nicholas Wehry, who ate 46 hot dogs in the men's competition.

Bertoletti's victory marks the first time the famous mustard belt has gone to someone other than Chestnut since 2015.

Thousands of fans, some wearing foam hot dog hats, gather each year at the event held outside the original Nathan’s location in Coney Island, Brooklyn, a seaside destination with amusement parks and a carnival-like summer culture. Rich Shea, CEO of Major League Eating, which organizes the event, noted that people still came out in droves even though Chestnut wasn’t there.

“He’s just a great competitor, a great guy, a grown man, and a man who made a choice not to be here today,” he said of the popular food champion on ESPN. “But fortunately for us, tens of thousands of people flock to Nathan’s Famous. It’s a pilgrimage every year. It’s not a paid Hollywood crowd. It’s excitement.”

Competitors came from more than a dozen states and five continents, with prospects from Brazil, Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Australia and the Czech Republic vying for the coveted title and a $10,000 prize.

Last year, Chestnut, from Indiana, ate his way to the title by eating 62 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. The record, which he set in 2021, is 76.

Chestnut was initially disinvited from the event due to a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, a plant-based meat substitute company that advertised on ESPN throughout the event Thursday.

Major League Eating has since said it has reversed the ban, but Chestnut decided to spend the holiday with the troops anyway.

Chestnut said he would not return to the Coney Island contest without apologizing.

The event at Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. ET, will use traditional sausages, with Chestnut attempting to eat more than four soldiers in five minutes.

While Chestnut won't be eating vegan products, Impossible Foods will promote the expo's live stream on YouTube by flying banner-bearing planes over Los Angeles and Miami. The company will also donate to an organization that helps military families based on the number of hot dogs consumed at the event, a spokesperson said.