Possibly trying to avoid killing himself now that he’s in his 40s, undisputed world champ of rapid hot dog consumption Joey Chestnut limited himself to just 70.5 of the phallic meat morsels in 10 minutes during his hotly anticipated return to the Nathan’s 4th of July contest, coming up short of his own personal and the worldwide record of 83 in the same window during the special Labor Day 2024 Netflix win over longtime rival Takeru Kobayashi’s 66 hot dogs, the New York Post reports.
Same story with reigning women’s champ Miki Sudo: She captured her 11th win, having eaten 33 hot dogs in 10 minutes but came up short of her personal record of 51. Sudo went as far as to lament that she had “let the fans down” by not eating 52 or more at the Coney Island contest.