NYC Hot Dog Contest Set to Crown Chow Down Champs

The annual Fourth of July hot dog eating contest was set to roll Thursday in Coney Island, with chomp champs Joey Chestnut and Sonya Thomas defending their respective men's and women's titles.

Chestnut, 29, is a six-time winner who set the record — 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes — in 2009 and tied it last year. Thomas, 45, powered through 45 dogs to take the women's championship last year and also won in 2011, the first year women competed separately.

They likely will be tough to beat.

"Tomorrow's strategy: just find my rhythm really quickly," Chestnut, the 210-pounder (95-kilogram) nicknamed "Jaws" said after the ceremonial weigh-in near City Hall on Wednesday as he munched on a frank, the only thing he'd eaten that day amid a preparatory fast.

Chestnut said his pace has been uneven in the past, but "this year I'm trying to eat a little more gracefully, conserve my energy."

Thomas, a 100-pound (45-kilogram) dynamo known as the "Black Widow" of competitive eating, says the challenge of shoveling down dozens of franks is actually "more mental than physical."

"I have to fight with myself, so I'm going to try to really focus," said Thomas, who manages a fast-food restaurant. And no, it doesn't serve hot dogs.

Now in its 98th year, the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest generally draws a crowd of thousands to marvel at contestants cramming frankfurters down their throats.