Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

Nathan's Wall of Fame of contest winners.

The Nathan's International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest is an annual competitive eating competition held at Nathan's Famous Corporation's original and best-known restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. The event is held on July 4, and is regarded as the world's most famous hot dog eating contest. In 2006, over 30,000 spectators attended the event, and an additional 1.5 million households watched it live on ESPN.

The 92nd annual contest will be held July 4, 2007, and will be televised live on ESPN at 12 p.m. EDT. Six-time defending champion Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi will attempt to win his seventh straight despite suffering from reported jaw pain. Kobayashi will be challenged by Joey Chestnut, who recently shattered his world hot dog eating record by eating 59.5 hotdogs and buns in a qualifying event

History and Traditions

According to legend, on July 4, 1916 four immigrants had a hot dog eating contest at Nathan's Famous stand in Coney Island to settle an argument about who was the most patriotic. After twelve minutes, James Mullen had eaten thirteen hot dogs and was crowned the victor. The contest has been held nearly every year since in conjunction with Independence Day at the site. In 1993, a one-time, one-on-one contest under the Brooklyn Bridge was held between Mike DeVito and Orie Ito.

There is a weigh-in with the Mayor of New York City prior to the contest. On the day of the contest, the contestants arrive in the "bus of champions".

In recent years, guitarist and songwriter Amos Wengler has performed one of the songs he had written for the contest. A person in a hot dog costume dances as Wengler plays. Some of Wengler's compositions are "Hot Dog Time!", "Hot Dogs, Hot Dogs" and "Where is the Belt?" by John Jones.

The winner is given ownership of the coveted international "bejeweled" mustard-yellow belt. The belt is of "unknown age and value" according to IFOCE co-founder George Shea and rests in the country of its owner. The belt is currently on display in the Imperial Palace in Saitama, Japan near the Nakazato Danchi campus, where it will remain until the 2007 contest.

Rules

Only adults 18 years or older who fulfill one of the following four conditions may compete:

• Being the reigning champion
• Winning a regional qualifying contest for that season
• Qualifying as the season's wildcard (highest average qualifier score without winning a single qualifer)
• Special invitation by IFOCE (see "Controversies" below)

The IFOCE has sanctioned the event since 1997. Today entrants cannot be from any non-IFOCE competitive eating organizations or their invitations will be revoked.

Rules used in the early years of the contest were different than today's. For example, in past contests minors could compete (Birgit Felden was 17 when she won the 1984 contest.)

During the event, the field of about 20 contestants stands on a raised platform behind a 30-foot-long table with drinks and Nathan's Famous hot dogs in buns. Most contestants drink water, but other kinds of drinks can and have been used. Condiments are allowed, but are usually not used. The hot dogs themselves are allowed to cool slightly after grilling to prevent possible mouth burns. Whomever consumes (and keeps down) the most hot dogs and buns ("HDBs") in twelve minutes is declared the winner. A designated scorekeeper is paired with each contestant who flips a number board counting the hot dogs consumed. Partially eaten hot dogs count and the granularity of measurement is eighths of a length. Hot dogs still in the mouth at the end of the 12 minutes count only if they are swallowed. There can be deductions in score for excess HDB debris. Both hands may be used. After the winner is declared, a plate with the number of hot dogs eaten by the winner is brought out.

Prizes

Winners receive a trophy, two cases of Nathan's Famous hot dogs, and in some years a non-cash prize donated by a sponsor. For example, in 2004 Orbitz donated a travel package to the winner.

In 2007, for the first time, there will be cash awarded to the winners. $20,000 in cash prizes will be awarded in 2007 as follows:

• 1st Place: $10,000
• 2nd Place: $5,000
• 3rd Place: $2,500
• 4th Place: $1,500
• 5th Place: $1,000

Controversies

Controversies usually revolve around a supposed breach of rules that is missed by the judges. For example, NY1 news reporter Adam Balkin reviewed taped footage of the 1999 contest and noticed that Steve Keiner ate half a hot dog before the contest had officially begun. The judge, who was standing directly in front of Keiner, missed it otherwise Keiner would have been disqualified. According to the rules, the judges' word is final, so in this case Keiner took first place despite Balkin's discovery. Editors of the website speedeat.com have accused others of cheating at qualifiers where there is less scrutiny.

Another controversy occurred in 2003 when ex-NFL Player/WWE Wrestler William "The Refrigerator" Perry competed as a celebrity contestant. Though he had won a qualifier by eating 12 hot dogs, he ate just 4 HDBs at the contest, stopping eating completely just five minutes into the competition. On July 1, 2004 at a ceremony following a showing of Crazy Legs Conti's documentary, George Shea stated that the celebrity contestant experiment will likely not be repeated. However, there will be an invited guest in 2007's contest.

Past winners

Year	Name	First	Second	Third	Notes
2007	-	-	-	-	Event record going into the 2007 contest is 53¾ HDBs (Kobayashi) World record going into the 2007 contest is 59½ HDBs (Chestnut)
2006	Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi	9999	52	37	World record
2005	Takeru Kobayashi	49	37	32
2004	Takeru Kobayashi	53½	38	32	World record
2003	Takeru Kobayashi	44½	30½	29½
2002	Takeru Kobayashi	50½	26	25½	World record
2001	Takeru Kobayashi	50	31	23½	World record
2000	Kazutoyo "The Rabbit" Arai	25⅛	24	22¼	World record
1999	Steve Keiner	20¼	19
1998	Hirofumi Nakajima	19
1997	Hirofumi Nakajima	24½			World record, first time international qualifiers used
1996	Edward Krachie	22¼	20		World record. Record was later broken December 4, 1996 by Hirofumi Nakajima (23¼) in a hot dog eating contest in Central Park
1995	Edward Krachie	19½	19
1994	Mike Devito	20
1993	Mike Devito	17			First time qualifying events used to choose contestants
1992	Frank Dellarosa	20
1991	Frank Dellarosa	21½			World record; 1991 event was the 75th annual contest. Contest was 12 minutes
1990	Mike Devito	16
1989	Jay Green	13
1988	Jay Green	14
1987	Don Wolfman	12			Record going into contest reported as 17
1986	Mark Heller	15½			Despite Don Wolfman being listed falsely as the winner in various accounts, the New York Post of July 5, 1986 and New York Times of July 7, 1986, confirms Heller the winner of the 10 minute contest. According to a Nathan's spokesman, the 70-year record going into the 1986 contest was 17 by Walter Paul in 1978.
1985	Oscar Rodriguez	11¾
1984	Birgit Felden	9½
1983	Luis Llamas	19½			Unconfirmed; a 1987 New York Times article states that the record going into the 1987 contest was 17.
1982	Steven Abrams	11			Held July 5; Winner ate one bite of a 12th hot dog. Record going into contest reported as 14 (Jim Mattner)
1981	Thomas DeBerry	11			Winner stopped eating after five minutes to attend a family barbecue.
1980	Paul Siederman Joe Baldini	9+			Siederman and Baldini both ate 9 hot dogs plus part of a tenth in ten minutes. Both ate 3½ hot dogs in an eat-off, and were declared co-winners
1978	Walter Paul	17			World record
1974	Roberto Muriel	10			The 3 1/2 minute contest was won by a 24 year old Brooklyn resident New York Times
1972	Jason Schechter	14			The contest lasted for 3 1/2 minutes and was won by a Brooklyn college student. The prize was certificates for 40 more hot dogs. New York Times
1916	Jim Mullen	13			Inaugural contest

Media coverage

Newspapers

News sources typically use puns in headlines and copy referring to the contest such as "'Tsunami' is eating contest's top dog again", "couldn't cut the mustard" (AP), "Nathan's King ready, with relish" (Daily News) and "To be frank, Fridge faces a real hot-dog consumer" (ESPN).

Reporter Gersh Kuntzman of the New York Post has been covering the event since the early 1990s and has been a judge at the competition since 2000. Darren Rovell of ESPN has competed in a qualifier.

Film and Television

The Nathan's contest has been featured in these documentaries and television programs:

• "Red, White, and Yellow" (1998)
• "A Hot Dog Program: An All-American, Culinary Cruise Through Hot Dog History" (1999)
• "Gut Busters" (2002) Made for TV - Discovery Channel
• "King of the Hill", "The Fat and the Furious" episode (2002)
• "Footlong" (2002) - not the 2003 short film of the same name
• "The Tsunami - Takeru Kobayashi" (2003) Japanese
• "Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating" (2004)
• "The Most Extreme", "Big Mouths" episode (2004) (Animal Planet)
• "True Life" (2006) MTV documentary series

Starting in 2004, the contest began at 12:40 p.m. presumably because ESPN started covering the event live. In 2004, ESPN hired Windfall Productions (Ralph J. Mole, Exec. Producer) who used six cameras, a live New York City crew and a TV mobile unit to produce a one-hour network sports special about the contest. It was hosted by Gary Miller and was carried live in Times Square on the ABC "Jumbotron". Since 2005, Paul Page has been ESPN's play-by-play announcer for the event, with Richard Shea as analyst.

CNN's Jeannie Moos covered the contest on CNN in a piece called "A Different Story," (July 4, 1996). "VivaVegie" protesters were visible in the background calling out the ingredients in hot dogs.

Other

The competition draws many spectators and worldwide press coverage as well as the occasional protest from The VivaVegie Society, a vegetarian advocacy group. In 2005 it was estimated that 11,000 spectators watched.

In June 2004 a three-story high "Hot Dog Eating Wall of Fame" was erected at the site of the annual contest. The wall lists past records going back to 1984 and has a digital clock, which counts down the minutes until the next contest.

Japanese domination

Since 1997, a Japanese competitor has held the belt in all but one year (1999). In 2000, the first, second and third places were all taken by Japanese contestants (Kazutoyo Arai, 新井和響, 25; Misao "Beast" Fujita, 藤田操, 24; Takako Akasaka, 赤阪尊子, 22).

In comparison to some of the top contestants of the U.S. who are tall and fat, Japanese contestants (with one exception - Nobuyuki Shirota) are thin and not that tall. One explanation for the Japanese dominance may be Ed Krachie's "Belt of Fat" theory which states that the stomach fat of the larger competitors restricts their stomachs from expanding beyond a certain point. In 1998 Krachie wrote a journal article called "Can abdominal fat act as a restrictive agent on stomach expansion? An Exploration of the Impact of Adipose Tissue on Competitive Eating". It was rejected by all of the many scientific journals in the United States and Canada to which it was submitted.

Despite the collective will of the Americans to take back the prize, only California college student Joey Chestnut has come close to Japanese records. He ate 52 hot dogs in the 2006 contest and 59½ in a 2007 qualifier. Kobayashi is the only person in the history of the contest to win six competitions (2001-2006) in a row.

Kobayashi, like most of Japanese competitors, also competes in other (non-hot dog) eating contests in Japan. These Japanese contests were sponsored by TV Tokyo's (テレビ東京) TV Champion (TVチャンピオン), which is a weekly TV competition program whose themes used to include several eating contests, mostly long-distance, during 1992-2002.

Tactics and training

Each contestant has his or her way to eat hot dogs. Takeru Kobayashi pioneered the "Solomon Method" at his first competition in 2001. The method is to break each hot dog in half, eat the two halves at once, then eat the bun. Kobayashi does a hip-wiggling dance while he eats, which lead to speculations that it was part of his technique, but he insists he was just getting into the music. Table manners are not a part of the game. Carlene LeFevre hops to help get the hot dogs down. Contestants typically stand while eating or lean forward.

It is thought that high blood-sugar levels open the pylorus, the link between the stomach and the duodenum so some contestants eat sweets before the contest.

Because buns absorb water, some contestants prefer to drink as little as possible. Others dunk their hot dogs (or just the buns) in water and squeeze them to make them easier to swallow.

The idea of eating the hot dogs and buns separately was invented by Kazutoyo Arai and is sometimes called "Tokyo Style" or "Japanesing".

Contestants train and prepare for the event in different ways. Some fast, others drink water before the event. Takeru Kobayashi meditates, drinks water and eats cabbage, then fasts before the event. Kevin Lipsitz formerly trained by having eating races with his dogs, but animal rights advocates convinced him to stop. Several contestants, such as Ed Jarvis, aim to be "hungry, but not too hungry" and have a light breakfast the morning of the event.

The IFOCE does not sanction home training and does not endorse any training method.

Qualifying contests

First held nationally in 1993 and internationally in 1997, qualifying contests are used to determine contestants for the July 4th competition. A qualifier winner cannot compete in another qualifier in the same year and no contestant can compete in more than three qualifiers in the same season. Each qualifier can have at most fifteen contestants (typically first come/first served). A world record that is broken in a qualifier is official, but the winner does not get to hold the belt.

2007 U.S. qualifiers

• Sunrise, Florida
• Las Vegas, Nevada
• East Hartford, Connecticut
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Tempe, Arizona
• Shea Stadium
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Bloomington, Minnesota
• Norfolk, Virginia
• Cranbury, New Jersey
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Daly City, California
• South Street Seaport, New York
• West Chester, Pennsylvania

2007 International qualifiers

• Tokyo, Japan
• London, England
• Birmingham, England
• Manchester, England
• Wolverhampton, England
• Auckland, New Zealand
• Hanover, Germany
• Ureinsen, Germany
• Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand

Recent contest results

2007 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Wednesday July 4, 2007
No.	Name	Hot Dogs
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

2006 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Tuesday July 4, 2006
No.	Name	Hot Dogs
1	Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi (World Record)	53¾
2	Joey "Jaws" Chestnut (U.S. Record)	52
3	Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas (Women's Record)	37
4	Patrick Bertoletti	34¼
5	Tim "Eater X" Janus	34
6	Chip "The Phenom" Simpson	33
7	"Humble" Bob Shoudt	30
8	Rich "The Locust" LeFevre	28
9	Eric "Badlands" Booker	24
10	Patrick "from Moonachie" Philbin	23
11	Eric Denmark	22
12	Seaver Miller	22
13	Brian Subich	22
14	Crazy Legs Conti	21⅓
15	Allen Davis	20½
16	Robert Andersson	20
17	Hall Hunt	19
18	Kamil "The Camel" Hamersky	18
19	Kenji Oguni	16
20	Jed Donahue	1

2005 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Monday July 4, 2005
No.	Name	Hot Dogs
1	Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi	49
2	Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas (U.S. record, women's record)	37
3	Joey "Jaws" Chestnut	32
4	Ed "Cookie" Jarvis	29
(tie)	Keiji Oguni	29
6	Rich LeFevre	25½
7	Carlene LeFevre	25
8	Ron Koch	23
9	Tim Janus	22½
10	Eric Booker	22
(tie)	Charles Hardy	22
12	Patrick "Pat From Moonachie" Philbin	20
13	Crazy Legs Conti	19
14	Joe LaRue	18
15	Don Lerman	15
16	Rob Burns	10

Here are some results from the 2004 contest:

2004 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Sunday July 4, 2004
No.	Name	Hot Dogs
1	Takeru Kobayashi (world record, Japanese record)	53.5
2	Nobuyuki Shirota	38
3	Sonya Thomas (American record, women's record)	32
4	Rich LeFevre	27.75
5 (tie)	Ed Jarvis/Eric Booker	27
7 (tie)	Ron Koch/Carlene LeFevre	22
9 (tie)	Oleg Zhornitskiy / Jim Reeves	21
11	Joe LaRue	20
12	Allen Goldstein	19
13 (tie)	Charles Hardy/Don Lerman/Dale Boone	18

Top contestants

Contestant	Hometown	Best Coney Island showing			Best Qualifier showing
		Hot dogs	Rank	Date	Hot dogs	Rank	Date	Location
Joey "Jaws" Chestnut	San Jose	52	2nd	July 4, 2006	59½	1st	June 2, 2007	Tempe
Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi	Nagano	53¾	1st	July 4, 2006			2001?
Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti	Chicago	34¼	4th	July 4, 2006	46	1st	May 3, 2007	Las Vegas
Tim "Eater X" Janus	New York City	34	5th	July 4, 2006	41½	1st	May 19, 2007	East Hartford
Chip "ChipBurger" Simpson	Gainsville	33	6th	July 4, 2006	39¼	1st	March 24, 2007	Sunrise, FL
Nobuyuki "The Giant/Gutzilla" Shirota	Japan	38	2nd	July 4, 2004	31	1st	May 30, 2004	Toyko, Japan
Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas	Alexandria, VA	37	2nd 3rd	July 4, 2005 July 4, 2006	36½	1st	June, 2006
Rich "The Locust" LeFevre	Henderson, NV	-	-	-	33	2nd	2007	Las Vegas
"Humble" Bob Shoudt	Philadelphia	30	7th	July 4, 2006	33	2nd	May 26, 2007	Philadelphia
Kazutoyo "Super Express/The Rabbit" Arai	Fukuoka, Japan	-	-	-	31	1st	February 2, 2001	Japan
Ed "Cookie" Jarvis	Nesconset, NY	30½	2nd	July 4, 2003	24	1st	May 16, 2004	Boston
Eric "Badlands" Booker	Copiague, NY	29½	3rd	July 4, 2003	30	1st	2004	Belmont, NY
Keiji Oguni	Gunma-ken	29	4th	July 4, 2005	19			Toyko, Japan Qualifier
Hall Hunt	Orange Park, FL	-	-	-	28¾	1st	2007	Charlotte, NC
"Pat From Moonachie" Philbin	Moonachie, NJ	-	-	-	27 26½	1st 1st-tie	2007 2007	Cranbury, NJ Shea Stadium (lost runoff)

• Bold indicates personal best

• Erik Denmark - 26.5 (#1(tie, won in runoff) 2007 Shea Stadium Qualifier)
• Juliet Lee 26 (#1 2007 Norfork, VA Qualifier)
• Oleg "The Great Z" Zhornitskiy (Brooklyn, USA) - 25.5 (#3/20 2002), 19 (June 26 2004? Long Island NY Qualifier)
• Allen Goldstein - 25.5 (#2 2007 Shea Stadium Qualifier)
• Tim Brown 25 (#3 2007 Tempe AZ Qualifier)
• Carlene "Madame of Etiquette" LeFevre (Henderson, NV USA) - 25 (#7 2005), 23 (#1 June 25, 2005 Atlanta Qualifier, 22 (#6? 2004)
• "Big" Brian Subich, (Johnstown, PA USA) - 25 (May 27th, 2006 Philadelphia PA Qualifier)
• Dale Boone - 21 (#1 2007 Zoo Atlanta Qualifier)
• Loren "Bubba" Yarbrough - 20 (#2 2007 Zoo Atlanta Qualifier)
• Justin Mih 21 (#4 2007 Tempe AZ Qualifier)
• Marco Marquez 21 (#5 2007 Tempe AZ Qualifier)
• Hirofumi "The Tokyo Terror" Nakajima (Kofu, Japan) - 24.5 (1997)
• Misao "The Big Banana" Fujita (Japan) - 24 (#2 2000)
• "Hungry" Charles Hardy (Brooklyn, NY, USA) - 23.5 (#3/20 2001), 18.5 (June 30 2004 Staten Island NY Qualifier)
• Ron "Hizzoner" Koch (Las Vegas, NV USA) - 23 (#8 2005), 23 (#2 May 27 2004 Las Vegas NV Qualifier)
• Edward "The Animal"/"The Maspeth Monster" Krachie (Maspeth NY, USA) - 22.25 (#1 1996), 18 (Qualifier - in 6 minutes!)
• Takako "The Sweet Queen" Akasaka (Japan) - 22.25 (#3 2000)
• Steve Addicks - 22 (#4?/20 2001 USA)
• Andrew "The Real Meal" Becker (Lighthouse Point, FL USA) - 22
• "Gentleman" Joe Menchetti USA - 22 (?), 17 (#1 Saratoga Game and Raceway Qualifier USA)
• Crazy Legs Conti (home page) (New York NY, USA) - 24 (#1 2007 MN Qualifier), 21.5 (#1 April 15, 2006 Sunrise, FL Qualifier), 20 (#1 Shea Stadium 2005)
• Frank "Hollywood" Dellarosa USA - 21.5 (#1 1991)
• Jim "Buffalo"/"Superman" Reeves (Buffalo NY, USA) - 21 (#7? 2004), 19.5 (May 2005 Philadelphia PA Qualifier)
• Russ Keeler - 23 (2007 qualifier)
• Seaver Miller- 21 (QVC Qualifier West Chester, PA June 22, 2006) - 20.5 (Coney Island, NY July 4, 2006)
• Don "Moses" Lerman (home page) (Levittown NY, USA) - 20.75 (August 22 2004 Saratoga NY Qualifier), 20 (#5?/20 2001)
• Hall Hunt (Jacksonville, FL USA) - 20.375 (#2 2006 Norfolk, VA Qualifier)
• Steve "The Hot Dog Terminator" Keiner (Egg Harbor NJ, USA) - 20.25 (#1 1999)
• Mike "The Scholar" DeVito- 20 (#1 1994 USA)
• Bartoszek Tadeusz - 20 (1999)
• Mike Iskoe "Diskoe" - 10.5 (#9 - May 26, 2007 Philadelphia qualifier)
• "Jammin'"/"Chef" Joe LaRue (Hollywood FL, USA) - 20 (#8? 2004), 18 (June 19 2004 Pembroke Lakes FL Qualifier)
• Don Schaefer - (Myrtle Beach, SC USA) 12 (2002?), "about" 20 - (#1 2002 Atlanta GA, USA Qualifier)

External links

• Nathan's Famous
• International Federation of Competitive Eating
• EatFeats - competitive eating news, database and calendar
• The Miracle that is Kobayashi
• [11] Kobayashi's web site
• TV Champion (in Japanese)
• An overview of Japanese eaters (in Japanese)
• Start of Japanese Domination (in Japanese)
• Information about the contest
• Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas home page
• Two Dozen Hot Dogs Please, and No, They're Not to Go by Anthony Ramirez
• Sports Illustrated feature on the 2006 contest

References

• Man downs 22 hot dogs to win contest 07-04-1996
• Crazy Sporting Contests
• Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Results