JOEY CHESTNUT COMPETES IN NATHAN'S HOT DOG EATING CONTEST

Joey Chestnut will compete in the 2026 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on 4 July, seeking to extend his record number of victories at the event. The men's competition takes place at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, and will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 12 p.m. ET. Chestnut returned to the contest in 2025 following a one-year absence due to a sponsorship issue. A victory would give him 18 total wins in the competition.

Chestnut holds the all-time record for hot dogs consumed at a single Nathan's event, having eaten 76 hot dogs in 2021. He has achieved a winning performance of at least 70 hot dogs on six separate occasions. The second-best men's performance came in 2015, when Matt Stonie ate 62 hot dogs. On the women's side, Miki Sudo set the record by consuming 51 hot dogs in 2024 and has won the women's competition in all but one year since 2014. Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest began in 1972, with Jason Schechter winning the first official men's competition by eating 14 hot dogs.

The 2026 women's competition will begin at 10:45 a.m. ET and will be streamed on the ESPN app. The event continues a tradition spanning more than five decades.