Leo Messi plays in Miami in Major League Soccer, the American football championship. The Dodgers and the Yankees are currently facing each other in the final of the baseball championship, Major League Baseball. Americans also have Major League Eating. Hot dogs, nuggets and even blueberries… To each their own category.
Published on 29/10/2024 12:12
Reading time: 3min
Major League Eating was founded in 1997 and is still going strong, almost 30 years later. It organizes around 70 competitions per year, the best known being the hot dog competition in New York every year on July 4, a national holiday. The hot dog eating contest is Major League Eating’s equivalent of the Champions League final or the Super Bowl. Broadcast on the sports channel ESPN, the event attracts more than a million viewers each year, with $10,000 at stake for the winner and the victorious competitor since there is a men’s and women’s category.
Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest is KICKING OFF🌭🌭🌭 pic.twitter.com/QP3SAGM1Ek
— Major League Eating (@eatingcontest) July 4, 2023
But the MLE organizes other competitions: chicken wings – 236 swallowed in 12 minutes by this year’s winner, richer by 5,000 dollars -, chicken nuggets – 220 swallowed in 8 minutes by the winner, donuts – 70 in 8 minutes for 3,000 dollars, pistachios – 338 in 8 minutes this year. But the competitors also eat fruit, it’s healthier. This summer, more than 8 kilos of blueberries were swallowed in 8 minutes by the winner of the competition.
This is all the more impressive as the participants are often the same. As if you shine at tennis, golf and squash at the same time. And as the France Presse agency notes, competitors do not necessarily have gargantuan dimensions to swallow all that. It’s a matter of technique. To train, “athletes” drink lots of fluids – water, milk – to stretch their stomachs. Don’t forget to relax mentally before the competition and get plenty of sleep afterwards. Normally, real pros don’t even need to throw up. And like the 100-meter record that continued to improve until Usain Bolt, competitors went from 21 hot dogs in 12 minutes to 83 in 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the MLE was not spared from suspicions of cheating. Proof, perhaps, that it is a sports league like any other.
The league also has its star, Joseph Christian Chestnut, more simply called Joey Chestnut. The legend, the goat, the king of the hotdog. 41 years old in a few days. He has won 16 of the last 19 Nathan’s Hot Dog contests, the most important event of the year for Major League Eating. The league describes him as a “American hero”.
Joey Chestnut running to greet his fans #joeyjaw #JoeyChestnut #coneyisland pic.twitter.com/oDX0qCi4Uu
— Major League Eating (@eatingcontest) July 4, 2023
But scandal, he was unable to register for this year’s competition, on July 4, 2024. Why? Because he signed a sponsorship contract with Impossible Foods, a vegan sausage brand. Obviously, Nathan’s, the brand of real sausages that sponsors the MLE event, is no better. He promised his fans that they would see him again “manger” Soon.
