Saturday, July 4, 2009

History of Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

Champions Compete In Nathans Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest
Joey Chestnut captured his third straight title downing 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes today, shattering his previous record of 66 dogs in 2007. While watching this I was interested to see the previous winners of the competition dating back to 1990.

2009 - 68
2008 - 59
2007 - 66
2006 - 54
2005 - 49
2004 - 53
2003 - 44
2002 - 50
2001 - 50
2000 - 25
1999 - 20
1998 - 19
1997 - 24
1996 - 22
1995 - 19
1994 - 20
1993 - 17
1992 - 19
1991 - 21
1990 - 16

Since the inception of Nathan's hot dog eating contest, from the first contest to 2000, no single person ate more than 25 dogs in a contest. It's remarkable considering the contestant who came in third this year ate 55!

Personally, I think the reason so many people can eat more than 25 now is because competitive eating has become a sport. Takeru Kobayashi redefined the sport in 2000 and since then competitors train year around for the contest. All I know is these people are insane!

3 comments:

Matt said...

You can find an eating contest for just about anything in todays day and age.

What is really crazy is that just a few years ago, Nathans shortened the time on the hot dog eating contest from 12 minutes to 10 minutes. They thought the numbers would decline. They have gone up!

Adam said...

Check their pee, I think they may be roiding.

Wojo said...

http://www.ifoce.com/records.php

Check the record for Chili. Someone ate 13.5 lbs. in 10 min at King's Island one time.