Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest category

NY1 reports that Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest will return to its traditional location outside the original Coney Island restaurant on July 4. 16 men and 12 women are expected to compete; the only named expected entrants in the article are Joey Chestnut, Miki Sudo and Michelle Lesco.
The @nathansfranks twitter announced that registration is closed for the 2022 Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest. This apparently implies that there will not be a qualifier circuit for the competition for the third year in a row.
A press release announces the 30th Annual Giant Barbecue Battle will hold a Nathan's Famous hot dog eating qualifier on June 25.
The What If Show has an Instagram video asking "What If You Ate 100 Hot Dogs In One Day?"
KGUN has an article about Michelle "Cardboard Shell" Lesco's victory in the 2021 Nathan's Famous women's division. She keeps her championship belt in the schoolroom at Roberts Naylor school in Tucson where she teaches math to 8th graders. update News video corresponding to the article.
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate in today's NYC mayoral election, competed in several Nathan's Famous finals in the 1990s, finishing 3rd in 1994. He appeared in "Footlong", a 2002 documentary about the hot dog using the 1998 Nathan's circuit as its framework which can be viewed on youtube. In interview starting around the 8:15 mark, he claims that defending champion Hirofumi Nakajima has been surgically altered with digestive enzymes.

Interview with Anne Nelson, sister of Caitlin Nelson

Daily Mail has an article about Anne Nelson, whose father, Port Authority Police Officer James Nelson, died in the World Trace Center wreckage. Another shocking fatality would strike the family 16 years later.

Tragedy stalked Anne again in 2017 when her sister Caitlin (then a 20 year old college student) died in a freak accident when she choked in a charity pancake eating contest.

‘I think that loss is what really made me process my father’s death a little more. Even though I had gone to therapy before, the enormity of it all didn’t really hit me until that happened.’

Anne Nelson’s story is proof that people can live through not one but multiple traumas and still recover. Now 31, Anne tries to honor her sister and dad in everything she does.

She currently works as a special needs teacher at an elementary school, inspired by Caitlin’s studies in social work and her father’s life-long emphasis on education. ‘I take a little bit of both of them in what I’m doing and I try to carry them with me through that.’

Nathan’s Hot Dog qualifiers, restricted to NYC civil servants, were held on top of the original World Trade Center from 1998 to 2000. “Hungry” Charles Hardy won all 3 contests. Very little information about the competitions remains on the internet. Here is a screen capture from the 2002 documentary “Footlong”

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Joey Chestnut in Twitter Trending Topics

Joey Chestnut is currently the #3 Twitter Trending Topic for the United States. The social media activity was spurred by a recent study claiming that eating one hot dog will reduce a diner’s lifespan by 35 minutes.

According to the eatfeats database, Joey Chestnut has eaten 1364.5 Nathan’s Famous hot dogs in 22 public events (17 finals, 3 qualifiers and 2 exhibitions). If the study is accurate, this would truncate Joey Chestnut’s lifespan by 47,757.5 minutes, or slightly more than 33 days. A list of all of Joey Chestnut’s Nathan’s Famous hot dog results follows.

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The New York Times has a long article about Nathan's Famous original Coney Island location.
Insider.com has an interview with Joey Chestnut about the aftereffects of competing in Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest.
Scottsdale.org has an interview with Erik "The Red" Denmark about competing in Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest.
Delish.com has an interview with Bill Strickland, the head of Hearst's Enthusiast Group, about serving as a judge in the 2021 Nathan's finals.
MagicalThemeParks posted a picture today of the site of the former Wall of Fame / countdown timer at the original Nathan's Famous location, which is now covered with a picture of the New York City skyline and a "The Flavor of New York" logo.
AZCentral has a profile of Michelle Lesco titled "Arizona woman wins Nathan's hot dog eating contest: How she burped her way to victory".

2021 Nathan’s Famous men’s contest

Official results. Joey Chestnut broke his record with a total of 76.

1st 76 Joey “Jaws” Chestnut New record
2nd 50 Geoffrey Esper
3rd 44 Nick Wehry
4th 43 Darron Breeden
5th 37.75 Gideon Oji
6th 32.5 Matt “Hungry” Hazzard
7th 32 George Chiger
8th 30.75 Adrian “The Rabbit” Morgan
9th 30 Juan “more bite” Rodriguez
10th 28 Erik “The Red” Denmark
11th 27 Brian “Dud Light” Dudzinski
11th 27 Steve “The Rabbit” Hammond
11th 27 Ronnie “MegaByte” Hartman
11th 27 Derek Jacobs
15th 25.5 Derek Hendrickson
16th 21.5 Pablo Martinez
17th 17 Crazy Legs Conti

Matt Stonie will not be competing. Erik Denmark and Brian Dudzinski are unexpected entrants.

I am going to be away from the internet for most of today and do not expect to post men’s results until sometime tonight. If you need them, you should not have any difficulty finding them.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe July 4th.

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2021 Nathan’s Famous women’s contest

Official results

1st 30.75 Michelle “Cardboard Shell” Lesco
2nd 24 Sarah “Unstoppable Bab” Rodriguez
3rd 18.25 Larell Marie “The Real Deal” Mele
4th 16 Katie Prettyman
5th 15 Sophia Devita
6th 12.75 Holly Titus
7th 11 Jocelyn Walker
8th 9.5 Kelly Wong
9th 8 Julie Goldberg
10th 7.75 Kathryn Tesch
11th 7.5 Rene Rovtar
12th 7 Kristina Rovtar
13th 5 Prudence DiBenedetto

Today is the 10th anniversary of the inaugural Nathan’s Famous women’s division. Nothing has been heard from the original top 3 in over 20 months, with Juliet Lee and Stephanie Torres passing away and Sonya Thomas going radio-silent after a mystery disqualification in the 2018 finals.

Mary Bowers is a surprise omission. There do not appear to be any unexpected entrants.

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Melody Andorfer, who ate 12 hot dogs in 5 minutes to win the Nathan's Famous eating contest held on Labor Day weekend in 1972, was honored at yesterday's weigh-in ceremony.
WGNO has an article about Adrian "The Rabbit" Morgan competing in his 10th Nathan's Famous eating contest finals.
C-Ville.com has an interview with Darron Breeden.
Sportscasting.com has an interview with Miki Sudo and Nick Wehry in which they talk about the origin of their relationship. update Middletown Press also has an article about the couple.
YouAreCurrent.com has an interview with Joey Chestnut. He has moved to Westfield, IN in suburban Indianapolis and has started a business, Joey Chestnut Eats, to produce his line of condiments.
The Chicago Tribune has an article about Juan and Sarah Rodriguez (formerly Sarah Reinecke). They will attempt to set the record for the most hot dogs eaten by a married couple in Sunday's Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest.
Worcester Magazine has an interview with Geoff Esper. He does not address why he missed last year's Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest after being included in the initial roster.
KVOA has a news video about Michelle Lesco competing in Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest in which she says "The title is mine for the taking".
Guardian Angels founder has been declared the winner of the Republican primary for mayor of New York City. He competed in several Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contests in the 1990s, finishing 3rd in 1994.
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