Tucson woman places third in Nathan's hot dog-eating contest

Dental hygiene student Miki Sudo of Florida has won her 10th title at the annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest.

Tucson teacher, Michelle Lesco, ate 23.75 hot dogs to finish in third place.

Sudo consumed 51 hot dogs in 10 minutes on Thursday in New York City — and set a new world record for women.

"I'm just happy to call this mine for another year," Sudo said after winning her 10th pink belt.

The 38-year-old defending champion last year won after forcing down 39 1/2 hot dogs. She defeated 13 competitors from around the world, including 28-year-old rival Mayoi Ebihara of Japan. Ebihara came in second after eating 37 hot dogs in 10 minutes. She was also the runner-up in 2023.

Later in the day, Patrick Bertoletti of Chicago gobbled down 58 hot dogs to win his first men's title, taking advantage of the absence of the event's biggest star.

Bertoletti won in a tight, 10-minute race where the leader bounced back and forth. The 39-year-old Bertoletti defeated 13 competitors from around the world in a test to see who can wolf down the most hot dogs in 10 minutes.

"I wasn't going to stop eating until the job was done," Bertoletti said.

Bertoletti bested his prior record of 55 hot dogs at the event, held every Independence Day on New York's Coney Island.

The reigning men's champion, Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, didn't attend the competition this year over a sponsorship tiff . Instead, Chestnut will compete against soldiers at a U.S. Army base in El Paso later in the day. Chestnut won 16 out of 17 previous competitions.

Bertoletti said he lost weight and practiced for three months with "an urgency" to prepare for Thursday's event, thinking he had a good chance of winning.

"With Joey not here, I knew I had a shot," he said. "I was able to unlock something that I don't know where it came from. But I'm not complaining."

Thousands of fans flock each year to the event held outside the original Nathan's location in Brooklyn's Coney Island, a beachfront destination with amusement parks and a carnivalesque summer culture. ESPN broadcast the contest live.

Competitors came from over a dozen states and five continents, with prospects from Brazil, Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Australia and the Czech Republic who competed for the coveted title and $10,000 prize money.

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