The Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is a storied event held annually on July 4th. It officially began in the 1970s, despite a fictitious origin story claiming it started in 1916. Initially a small event, it gained popularity after Frank Dellarosa’s record in the early 1990s and became sanctioned by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. By the early 2000s, Takeru Kobayashi's introduction heightened its prominence, evolving it into a spectacle admired nationwide and beyond.
Morty Matz, along with Nathan's marketing team, concocted the story that the first Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest was held in 1916, claiming it was a patriotism test.
In the early years, from 1972 to 1996, the contest was a small local event, gaining traction only when Frank Dellarosa set a record with 21.5 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
By the mid-1990s, the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest began to gain legitimacy with official sanctioning from the International Federation of Competitive Eating.
The arrival of Takeru Kobayashi in the early 2000s marked a significant boost in the contest's popularity, transforming it into a more global event.
#nathans-hot-dog-eating-contest #coney-island #competitive-eating #american-tradition #fourth-of-july
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