Joey Chestnut reacts after competing in the 2023 Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot-Dog Eating Contest. Anthony Behar

Joey Chestnut wins 16th hot dog eating contest after lightning delay

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 7/4/23

Not even Mother Nature could stop Joey Chestnut from claiming another Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest on Tuesday.

After it appeared as if the most famous eating contest in America was going to be cancelled due to severe weather in the New York city area, the show had to go on and it featured another dominant performance from Chestnut. He downed 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes to claim yet another title.

Not even a weather delay can stop Joey Chestnut

He downs 62 hot dogs to claim his 16th Mustard Belt pic.twitter.com/PbcOkt1gVc
— ESPN (@espn) July 4, 2023

Geoffrey Esper finished in a distant second by eating 49 hot dogs.

Tuesday's contest was delayed more than two hours due to lightning and storms.

While the 62 hot dogs is a staggering number, it still fell a whopping 14 short of the record 76 that he put away during the 2021 competition.

Chestnut is the greatest competitive eater in the world -- and arguably of all time -- and has made winning at Coney Island a constant over the better part of the past two decades. Chestnut has won every contest since 2007 with the exception of one -- the 2015 contest when he was narrowly edged out by Matt Stonie in a massive upset.

On the women's side, Miki Sudo was able to take home that championship by eating 40 hot dogs in the 10 minutes.

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