With Joey Chestnut absent from the 2024 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, the competition is wide open. Chestnut, a 16-time champion, holds the record with 76 hotdogs consumed in 2021. His absence marks the first time since 2015 that someone else will win the contest. Former competitive eater Pablo Martinez believes the contest will be closely contested, potentially coming down to the last one or two hotdogs.
James Webb, Australia’s top-ranked eater and No. 5 globally, is a favorite. Webb, who weighed in at 213 pounds, has won six of the last ten Major League Eating events and even defeated Chestnut in a pistachio-eating contest earlier this year. Despite setting a personal record of 47 hotdogs last year, Webb acknowledges the difficulty of surpassing Chestnut’s record.
Webb will compete against top eaters Ricardo Corbucci, Patrick Bertoletti, Nick Wehry, and Geoffrey Esper. As they aim for 50-plus hotdogs in 10 minutes, Chestnut will be competing against soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas, on Independence Day. Contest host George Shea remarked on the heightened competition without Chestnut, predicting a neck-and-neck finish.
The 2024 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest begins with the women’s competition at 10:45 a.m. ET, followed by the men’s competition at noon ET on ESPN. With Chestnut out, this year’s contest promises to be an exciting and unpredictable event.
