Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

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Nathan's Wall of Fame of contest winners.
Nathan's Wall of Fame of contest winners.

Nathan's Famous Corporation hosts an annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at the site of their first restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. There are other hot dog contests but none are as famous or claim to have as long a history as the Nathan's hot dog eating contest.

Contents

[edit] History

According to legend, on July 4, 1916 four immigrants had a hot dog-eating contest at the site of the first Nathan's Famous stand (at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues on Coney Island) to settle an argument about who was the most patriotic. After 12 minutes, James Mullen had eaten 13 hot dogs and was crowned the victor. A 12 minute contest has been held every year since on Independence Day at the site.[1] In 1993 there was a one-time one-on-one contest under the Brooklyn Bridge between Mike DeVito and Orie Ito.

In recent years, guitarist and songwriter Amos Wengler has performed one of the songs he had written for the contest. A person in a weiner 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

[edit] Rules

The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) has overseen the contest since 1997 when the federation was formed. Rules used in the early days of the contest were different, but are largely lost.

During the contest roughly 20 contestants stand on a raised platform behind a 30-foot-long table with hot dogs and drinks. Most contestants choose water as their drinks, but other kinds of drinks can and have been used. Condiments are optional and are usually not used. After the hot dogs are grilled they are allowed to cool slightly so as not to cause any burning when eaten. Whoever eats (and keeps down) the most hot dogs and buns (sometimes abbreviated "HDBs") in 12 minutes is the winner. Partially eaten hot dogs count and the granularity of measurement is eighths of a hot dog. Any hot dog still in the mouth at the end of the 12 minutes count only if they are swallowed. Both hands may be used.

There have been controversies. For example, in 1999, NY1 news reporter Adam Balkin discovered by reviewing the tape that Steve Keiner jumped the gun and had eaten half a hot dog before the contest had officially begun. The judge, who was standing directly in front of Keiner, missed it or else Keiner would have been disqualified. According to the rules, the judges' word is final, so Keiner took first place despite the videotape. Editors of the website "speedeat.com" have accused some of cheating at the qualifiers where there is less scrutiny.

After the winner is declared, a plate with the number of hot dogs eaten by the winner is brought out. Winners receive a trophy, the coveted international "bejeweled" mustard-yellow belt (of "unknown age and value" according to George Shea, co-founder of the IFOCE), and a "year's supply" of Nathan's Famous hot dogs (actually, just two cases). There is no cash award, but sometimes a sponsor will give a prize to the winner, (as in 2004, when Orbitz donated a "travel package"). The belt rests in the country of the current winner. It is currently on display in the Imperial Palace in Saitama near the Nakazato Danchi campus, Japan and will remain there until the 2007 contest.

Contestants must be at least 18 years old to compete, but this rule has not always been in effect. Birgit Felden was 17 when she won the 1984 contest.

There are three ways to enter the contest - by being the reigning champion, by winning one of the qualifying contests for that year, or by being an invited celebrity. Note: In 2003 ex-professional football player William "The Refrigerator" Perry competed as a celebrity contestant. Though he won a qualifier by eating 12 hot dogs, he stopped eating 5 minutes into the actual competition having eaten just 4. George Shea stated on July 1, 2004 at a ceremony following a showing of Crazy Legs Conti's documentary that the celebrity contestant experiment will likely not be repeated.

[edit] List of winners

Year Name First Second Third Notes
2006 Flag of Japan Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi 53¾ 49 37 Current world record
2005 Flag of Japan Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi 49 37 32 World record
2004 Flag of Japan Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi 53½ 38 32 World record
2003 Flag of Japan Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi 44½ 30½ 29½  
2002 Flag of Japan Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi 50½ 26 25½ World record
2001 Flag of Japan Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi 50 31   World record
2000 Flag of Japan Kazutoyo "The Rabbit" Arai 25⅛ 24 22¼ World record
1999 Flag of United States Steve Keiner 20½      
1998 Flag of Japan Hirofumi Nakajima 19      
1997 Flag of Japan Hirofumi Nakajima 24½     World record
1996 Flag of United States Edward Krachie 22¼ 20   World record
1995 Flag of United States Edward Krachie 19½      
1994 Flag of United States Mike "The Scholar" Devito 20      
1993 Flag of United States Mike "The Scholar" Devito 17      
1992 Flag of United States Frank "Large" Dellarosa 20      
1991 Flag of United States Frank "Large" Dellarosa 21½     World record
1990 Flag of United States Mike "The Scholar" Devito 16      
1989 Flag of United States Jay Green 13      
1988 Flag of United States Jay Green 14      
1987 Flag of United States Don Wolfman 12     Record going into contest reported as 17
1986 Flag of United States Mark Heller 17.5     despite wolfman being listed falsely as the winner in various accounts, the new york post of july 5, 1986 reports that year's winner as mark heller
1985 Flag of United States Oscar Rodriguez 11¾      
1984 Flag of Germany Birgit Felden 9½      
1983 Flag of Mexico Luis Llamas 19½     Unconfirmed; a 1987 New York Times article states that the record in 1987 (pre-contest) was 17.
1982 Flag of United States 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 Flag of United States Thomas DeBerry 11     Winner stopped eating after five minutes
1980 Flag of United States Paul Siederman
Flag of United States 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
1916 Flag of United States Jim Mullen 13     Inaugural contest
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] Media coverage

[edit] Newspapers

It is typical for news sources that report on the contest to use punning headlines and copy 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 1990's and has been a judge at the competition since 2000. Darren Rovell of ESPN has competed in a qualifier.

[edit] Film and Television

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

  • "Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest" (1997) - camcorder footage of Joe Terwilliger's 1997 qualifying attempt
  • "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.

[edit] Other

The competition draws many spectators and worldwide press coverage as well as the occasional protest from The VivaVegie Society[1], 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.

Two days before the event is the "weigh-in and certification ceremony" hosted by the mayor of New York City and representatives from Nathan's Famous and IFOCE at City Hall Park in Manhattan.

[edit] The Japanese domination

The contest has been a national favorite since its beginning. 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 1 U.S. contestant has come close to Japanese records. The best U.S. competitor is Joey Chestnut, a college student from California. His 2006 tally of 50 hot dogs is 3.5 hot dogs behind Takeru Kobayashi's 2004 record of 53.5 hot dogs (a little under 13.5 seconds per hot dog). He finished with 52 hot dogs and came in second at Nathan's in 2006. Results from the 2006 Las Vegas qualifying contest give some degree of hope to American competitors that they will be able to wrest the belt from Kobayashi in future contests. 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.

[edit] 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.

Tim "Eater X" Janus is credited with being the first person to dunk in a liquid other than water.

[edit] Criticism

The contest has been criticized for glorifying overeating and for contributing to the obesity of its participants. Some competitive eaters object to the contest allowing eating buns and hot dogs separately and call for a return to "picnic style" eating.


[edit] Qualifying contests

Contestants need to win one of the qualifier contests held at various locations worldwide in order to compete. Contestants can enter at most 3 qualifiers per year. Once a qualifier has been won, the winner cannot compete in another qualifier in the same year. There can be no more than 15 contestants at any given qualifier (first come/first served). The first international qualifier was held in 1993. There are generally about 20 qualifying events. The first national qualifiers were held in 1997. Additional prizes are sometimes given to winners of qualifiers such as a paid trip to the July 4th contest.

[edit] The 2006 qualifying events

  • April 15, Southern Regional
  • May 18, Midwest Regional
    • NY, NY Casino, Las Vegas, NV
  • May 20, New England Regional
    • Nathan's, E. Hartford, CT
  • May 27, Memorial Day Regional
    • Independence Mall, Philadelphia, PA
  • June 4, Southwest Regional
    • Arizona Mills Mall, Tempe, AZ
  • June 10, Mid Atlantic Regional
    • MacArthur Center Mall, Norfolk, VA
  • June 17, Northern Regional
    • Mall of America, Bloomington, MN
  • June 18, Regional Qualifier
  • June 23, New Jersey Regional
    • Molly Pitcher Travel Plaza, Cranbury, NJ
  • June 24, Northwest Regional
    • Century Theaters, San Francisco, CA
  • June 24, NY Metro Regional
    • Long Island Ducks Stadium, Central Islip, NY
  • June 24, Southeast Regional
    • Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
  • June 27, NY Civil Service Regional
    • South Street Seaport, NY
  • July 3, Weigh-In
    • Mayor Bloomberg, City Hall
  • July 4, International Hot Dog Eating Contest
    • Coney Island, NY

[edit] United States cities that have hosted or plan to host qualifiers

[edit] Cities outside the United States that have hosted or plan to host qualifiers

[edit] Recent contest results

(Name is boldfaced if personal best)

Partial results from the 2006 contest:

Pos. Contestant Hot Dogs
1 Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi (World Record) 53¾
2 Joey "Jaws" Chestnut (American Record) 52
3 Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas (Women's Record) 37
4 Patrick Bertoletti (Mohawk Record) 34.25
5 Tim "Eater X" Janus (Facepaint Record) 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 21.33
15 Allen Goldstein 20.5
16 Robert Andersson 20
17 Hall Hunt 19
18 Kamil "The Camel" Hamersky 18
19 Kenji Oguni 16
20 Jed "One is Enough for Me" Donahue 1

Here are the results from the 2005 contest:

Pos. Contestant Hot Dogs
1 Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi 49
2 Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas (American record, women's record) 37
3 Joey "Jaws" Chestnut 32
4 (tie) Ed "Cookie" Jarvis / Keiji Oguni 29
6 Rich LeFevre 25.5
7 Carlene LeFevre 25
8 Ron Koch 23
9 Tim Janus 22.5
10 (tie) Eric Booker / 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:

Pos. Contestant 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

[edit] A list of contestants (and their personal bests in qualifiers and the event itself)

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[edit] 50 hot dogs or more ("The Deuce Tre")

[edit] 40 hot dogs or more ("The Double Deuce")

[edit] 30 hot dogs or more ("The Tre")

  • Nobuyuki "The Giant/Gutzilla" Shirota (Japan) - 38 (#2 2004), 31 (May 30, 2004 Tokyo, Japan Qualifier)
  • Chip Simpson (PA, USA) - 38 (#1 Minn Qualifier 2006), 33 (#6 2006)
  • Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas (home page) (Rookie of the year 2004) (Alexandria, VA USA) - 37 (#2 2005, #3 2006) 36.5 (#1 June 2006 qualifier), 32 (#1 June 13 2005 Norfolk VA Qualifier), 32 (#3 2004), 26.5 (May 29 2004 Philadelphia PA Qualifier)
  • Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti (Chicago, IL USA) - 34.25 (#4 2006)
  • Tim "Eater X" Janus (New York, NY USA) - 34 (#5 2006)
  • Kazutoyo "Super Express"/"The Rabbit" Arai (Fukuoka (Saitama) Japan) - 31 (#2/20 2001)
  • Ed "Cookie" Jarvis (home page) (Nesconset, NY USA) - 30.5 (#2 2003), 29 (#4 2005), 24 (May 16 2004 Boston MA Qualifier)
  • Rich "The Locust" LeFevre (Henderson, NV USA) - 30.5 (#2 May 18, 2006 Las Vegas Qualifier), 27.75 (#4 2004), 27 (#1 May 19, 2005 Las Vegas NV Qualifier)
  • Eric "Badlands" Booker (home page) (Copiague NY, USA) - 30 (#1 2003 Belmont NY Qualifier), 29.5 (#3 2003)
  • "Humble" Bob Shoudt (home page) (Royersford, PA USA) - 30 (#7 2006)

[edit] 20 hot dogs or more ("The Deuce")

  • Keiji Oguni (Isezaki-shi, Gunma-ken, Japan) - 29 (#4 2005), 19 (2005 Tokyo, Japan Qualifier)
  • Oleg "The Great Z" Zhornitskiy (Brooklyn, USA) - 25.5 (#3/20 2002), 19 (June 26 2004? Long Island NY Qualifier)
  • Patrick "Pat From Moonachie" Philbin (Moonachie, NJ USA) - 25 (#2 2006 East Hartford Qualifier), 24 (#4 2006 Philadelphia Qualifier), 20 (#12 2005 Coney Island finals), 20.5 (#1 2005 Philadelphia 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)
  • 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) - 21.5 (#1 April 15, 2006 Sunrise, FL Qualifier), 20 (#1 Shea Stadium 2005), 19 (#2 Molly Pitcher 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)
  • 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)
  • Don Schaefer - (Myrtle Beach, SC USA) 12 (2002?), "about" 20 - (#1 2002 Atlanta GA, USA Qualifier)
  • "Jammin'"/"Chef" Joe LaRue (Hollywood FL, USA) - 20 (#8? 2004), 18 (June 19 2004 Pembroke Lakes FL Qualifier)

[edit] Quotes about the contest

  • "My first time in the contest I only consumed 8 hot dogs and buns, and I didn't eat for the rest of the weekend. This year, I got up to 11 dogs, and still ate dinner that night!! Now that's progress!" - Paul Barlow Jr. after the Atlanta 2005 qualifier
  • "The Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest has become a highlight of America’s greatest patriotic holiday...It epitomizes the spirit associated with the start of summer each year." - Wayne Norbitz, president and COO of Nathan’s Famous
  • "My congratulations to the guy from Japan who won the hot dog eating contest. He ate 25 hot dogs in 12 minutes. He's the big winner. He'll receive a check for $1,000 and colon cancer." - David Letterman (7/7/2000)
  • "By the fifth one, they're going to start tasting bad -- no matter how good they are. Your mind says stop, but you have to find a way to get over that and keep going." - George "Garbage Gut" Glum (1999?!)
  • "Takeru Kobayashi is absolutely, and without question, the greatest sports eater who ever picked up a frankfurter" - Sonya Thomas
  • "That's not sport. That's stupidity." - Lou Piniella
  • "Abdominals are ruining the sport. If you want to succeed in competitive eating, stay out of the gym". - Mike "The Scholar " DeVito (7/5/2005)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Famous Facts. Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs. Retrieved on 2006-12-11.
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