New York, (EFE) he was almost prevented by a thunderstorm.
However, the competition resumed a couple of hours later, and ten minutes was enough for Chestnut to gobble down 62 hot dogs with his buns and earn the “mustard belt” that recognized him as the winner, a feat he has achieved 16 times.
Chestnut, 39 years old and a native of Kentucky, is famous for the feats he repeats every July 4 -a holiday of Independence Day- in New York, but he is also an eminence in the particular American “sport” of “competitive gluttony ”, which covers all kinds of food.
Record eating “hot dogs”
His popularity has grown almost in parallel with his participation in the Nathan’s contest, which made him the top hot dog eater in 2021, when he gobbled down 76 of them in 10 minutes and set a world record.
And on the website of the Major League of Eating in the United States, which could be translated as the professional league of gluttons, Chestnut is listed as number one, with world records in 55 “disciplines” and figures dating back to 2006.
The health risks of these activities seem to be worth it for Chestnut, who quit his construction job in 2010 to pursue his passion and earns about $500,000 a year from awards and advertising contracts, according to USA. Today.
Chestnut, the king of the contest
Although it usually takes place in a festive and calm atmosphere, the company had increased security after an animal rights defender approached Chestnut in the middle of his work last year, although he repelled him with little flinch.
The president of the League, Rich Sea, said Tuesday on ESPN that that moment, in which Chestnut locked the intruder to remove him before continuing to eat, “it cost him 5 hot dogs.”
In the women’s category, which was held before the interruption due to bad weather, Miki Sudo won his ninth victory, gulping down 39 and a half puppies in 10 minutes, although that feat was far from his record: 48 and a half puppies (2020). .
The champion of the “hot dog”
Sudo, 38 years old and from Florida, repeated her champion title that no one has taken from her since she started competing in 2014, except for 2021, when she was pregnant.
Today she was accompanied by her young son and her husband, Nick Wehry, who like her is dedicated to this “sport” and who unsuccessfully faced, like everyone else, the king of hot dogs, also known as “jaws” for his skills to gobble up.