Scenes from a wet and wild Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest

Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo retained their titles as lightning and heavy rain wreaked havoc on the day

The women’s contest had already been won by nine-time champ Miki Sudo in a buzzer-beater with Japan’s Mayo Edihara when the 2023 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest descended into chaos: Lightning! Thunder! A torrential downpour!

The huge crowd on both Stillwell and Surf Avenues stood their ground at first, not wanting to lose their hard-earned spots to a passing shower, but the rain and lightning kept coming, and the streets flooded, and the security guards yelled at everyone to clear the area even though there was nowhere to go, and, finally, after about 30 minutes of this, the emcee and event co-organizer George Shea got on the mic and announced that the NYPD had ordered them to cancel the men’s event.

Miki Sudo defends her title to become a nine-time champ (Scott Lynch)

Surprise twist though! The men’s competition got uncancelled about an hour later, and Joey Chestnut won the thing easily, his 16th victory, shoving 62 glizzies and soggy buns down his gullet in 10 minutes. It was far from his personal best of 76 but more than enough to fend off second-place finisher Geofrey Esper, who ate 49.

Limited spectators were allowed back through the NYPD barricades to watch Chestnut’s triumph live. However, your Brooklyn Magazine hot dog correspondent’s camera did not survive the deluge (RIP trusty old friend), but ESPN covered it and has some video.

Hot dogs in the rain (Scott Lynch)

Both the men’s and women’s fields featured an international contingent of 15 contestants, but most of the eaters aren’t a factor in the contest, and many of them don’t even crack double digits. One woman last year only finished two or three hot dogs in the allotted time, which is basically like eating lunch.

Before all the frankly disgusting-to-watch competitive eating drama went down, and before the rain made a sodden mess of the day, the vibes at Coney were sweaty, with Chestnut fans coming from as far away as “6,000 miles,” as one sign claimed, to spend the morning sweltering in the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, periodically chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A.” There were branded Pepcid hats and there were MAGA hats and there were hot dog hats.

(Scott Lynch)

Linus Gordon, for example, flew in from Austin, Texas, to witness the spectacle, joined by his sisters, who came from Los Angeles. “This is my third year,” he told Brooklyn Magazine. “I’m so excited. My dad’s from Coney Island, and we always watched it on TV when I was a kid. We got here at 6 a.m. to get right in the front. The last couple of years I was in the smell zone, but today we’re in the splash zone.”

(Scott Lynch)

To keep the thousands of spectators entertained when no one was up on stage gagging on glizzies — really, I can’t overstate how gross this all is — there were performances by the likes of subway busker Felipe Pavani, who belted out Living on a Prayer and Don’t Stop Believing; the dance trio Bollywood Action; and Eric Booker, also known as Badlands Chugs, who got into a spirited rap battle with emcee Shea.