Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest
competition
The Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest is an annual American hot dog competitive eating competition. It is held each year on July 4 at Nathan's Famous' original, and best-known, restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City.
The contest has gained public attention since the mid-2000s due to the stardom of Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut. The defending men's champion is Joey Chestnut, who ate 66 hot dogs in the 2026 contest. The defending women's champion is Miki Sudo, who ate 51 hot dogs at the 2024 event, and who won the 2026 event with 38.75.
Rules
Major League Eating (MLE), sanctioned by the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE), has sanctioned the event since 1997. Today, only entrants currently under contract by MLE can compete in the contest.
The field of about 20 contestants typically includes the following:
any past champion;
winners of a regional qualifying contest for that season;
individuals qualifying as one of two wildcards (highest two average qualifier scores without winning a single qualifier); and
those invited by special invitation of the MLE.
The competitors stand on a raised platform behind a long table with drinks and Nathan's Famous hot dogs in buns. Most contestants have water on hand, but other kinds of drinks can and have been used. Condiments are allowed, but usually are not used.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.