Joey Chestnut Leads Valiant Charge To Restore Order To Hot Dog Eating Contest After False Cancellation, Wins 16th Title
Miki Sudo was able to defend her Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest title without issuee on Tuesday afternoon, but Joey Chestnut had a different experience. The show almost did not go on!
ABC7 first reported that the men's division competition was cancelled due to weather around 12:40 p.m. ET. What a shame...
Fortunately, the report was wrong!
Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest is held on the corner of Surf and Stillwell on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. The women went off without issue.
Sudo remained the winningest female in the contest's history by downing what was first counted as 37 hot dogs. However, upon a judge's recount, she won her ninth Nathan's title with 39.5 hot dogs.
The men's division was set to get underway at 12:00 p.m. ET, but weather had other plans.
Out came the rain and washed the hot dogs out.
The skies opened up and it started pouring. It wasn't just a little bit of rain. It was a torrential downpour.
People immediately ran for cover when the rain first rolled in.
Not long thereafter, the eye of the storm hovered over Coney Island and brought lightning with it.
Flooding saw the entire peninsula covered in two or three inches of water with no signs of stopping.
While the rain was not ideal, it was the lightning that put things over the top. The stage was cleared due to the weather right at noon, and NYPD reportedly cancelled the contest not long thereafter.
Weather did... Until it didn't!
Joey Chestnut rallied the troops.
As reports indicated that the contest was cancelled, Chestnut and Badlands Booker didn't agree.
Booker used the down time to quench his thirst.
Once the rain had subsided, Chestnut went on a warpath.
He wanted to eat. He was ready.
30 minutes later, the contest was back on!
Chestnut and the competitors returned to the stage shortly after 2:00 p.m. ET.
The field never stood a chance.
Chestnut won the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest for the eighth-straight time and 16th time overall after eating 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
For a moment, the contest was cancelled and the United States of America had the wind sucked from its sails. Chestnut had different plans.
He put the stars and stripes on his back, led the charge to get it underway, and then got it done— again.
U-S-A! U-S-A!