There are many time-honored traditions on Independence Day. There is the actual purpose of the holiday where the colonies declared their independence from England but other traditions have been added to the 4th of July over the past 242 years.
One such tradition has been the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, definitely the most prestigious and well-known competitive eating competition. Joey Chestnut won his 11th mustard belt after eating 64 hot dogs (later determined to be 74 and a new World Record) in 10 minutes. It wasn’t exactly close as Chestnut began to pull away from everyone, eventually winning by 19 hot dogs over Carmen Cincotti.
Chestnut has been a mainstay at the hot dog eating contest since becoming a competitive eater in 2005. Over the years, Chestnut has eaten 862 hot dogs. That in itself is unheard of. I don’t even know if I have eaten that many hot dogs in my life and this guy has eaten them all in a total of a couple hours of eating.
The men’s competition wasn’t the only contest on Coney Island, Nathan’s had a women’s competition and just like with the men, the women have their own dominant competitor in Miki Sudo, who won her fifth consecutive title. Sudo didn’t break her own world record of 41 hot dogs in 10 minutes but she was comfortably in command as she finished with 37 this year.
10 minutes + 37 hot dogs = 5th title for @OMGitsMIKI 🏆🌭 pic.twitter.com/MGGeeYUHW9
— ESPN (@espn) July 4, 2018
[Photo: Getty Images]
