Chestnut, 8 in a row

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http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/1117 ... ney-island

The 61 hot dogs and buns [HDBs] equates to 23,790 calories, 1,189.5 grams of fat, 60,390 milligrams of sodium, 2,245 grams of carbohydrates and 793 grams of protein.

Check out "The Science of Competitive Eating" video link also.

Stonie was quite close this year (he's beat Chestnut in 4 other events the last couple of years, but never in the Nathan's July 4th), with Kobayashi in his own event.

Takeru Kobayashi had held the record with six consecutive wins, but in 2010, he refused to sign an exclusive contract with Major League Eating, the food equivalent of the NFL, and was banned from competition.

This year, Kobayashi will compete against five other competitive eaters at a separate event on Fifth Avenue in a quest to down the most hot dogs without buns in 10 minutes.

Personally, I have to think the "without buns" makes it less interesting. See http://www.news10.com/story/25933638/ho ... th-contest for the promotional efforts (I can't track down the results yet).

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https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/photos/hum ... 26370.html

Takeru Kobayashi poses for a photo following his victory in a bunless hot dog eating competition in the Manhattan borough of New York July 4, 2014. Kobayashi ate 113 hotdogs in what organizers claim is the world's first official bunless hotdog eating competition.

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One of my academic colleagues has now tracked down a Kobayashi video (Instagram) from Food Republic. [There is some dispute as to 112 or 113 for Kobaysahi, he did 110 in an exhibition back in 2012.]

http://instagram.com/p/qCaLXzpAO-/?modal=true

[User923005]

I can eat two hotdogs and enjoy them. On the third, I really don't want to eat it.
It fills me with horror to imagine the sensation of eating the giant piles of hotdogs that these guys are consuming.

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Man dies in hot dog eating contest

What should have been a fun way to kick off the Fourth of July weekend quickly turned tragic for a Custer man who choked to death while trying to speedily eat hot dogs during a competitive eating contest.

The crowd at Way Park in Custer, just across from the county courthouse, was stunned Thursday afternoon when one of six contestants -- Walter Eagle Tail, 47 -- began to choke while trying to win the contest.

[...]

Eagle Tail's untimely death put a damper on the festivities sponsored by the Custer Chamber of Commerce. Organizers cancelled a planned pie eating contest for the next day.

Wheeler said he was not sure if the death will prompt organizers to make changes to the contest next year.

[...]

Custer Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dave Ressler said Eagle Tail's death was the first time in memory anyone had gotten hurt during the few years the local contest has been held.

[...]

The death marked the rare time someone has died in competitive eating, which has grown in popularity in recent years. Competitive eater Joey Chestnut has garnered national attention for his ability to eat hot dogs quickly, including when he knocked back 61 dogs in 10 minutes over the holiday. A similar style contest was held in Rapid City last week. Competitors often dip the hot dogs in water before eating to make the buns easier to eat.

Deaths during competitive eating contests have happened in the past. According to various web sites, a Romanian man choked to death during a sausage-eating contest in 2013 in that country, and in 2012, a Florida man choked to death after eating dozens of live cockroaches during a contest.

In 2008, a Taiwanese student died after hurriedly eating at least two rice and cheese buns during a competition. And a 2007 case led to radio station employees in California being fired after a water-drinking competition for a Nintendo Wii ended in the winner's death.

In the world of competitive eating, those in the industry say safety is always a top priority.

"We always make sure it's in a controlled environment," said George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating, a competitive eating organization out of New York.

"We organize the entire thing around safety. (Just as) if it's football or hockey or auto racing, we approach it as a top priority," he said.