00:00It's weird to think of competitive eating as skills, as a gift, but you know, some people are good singers,
00:04some people are amazing at mental math. For me, it's competitive eating.
00:31I'm best known for the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating competition. I'm undefeated on the women's side.
00:36My record is the world record at 48 and a half hot dogs, but I also do other competitions all throughout the year.
00:42I hold the world record for kimchi, so Korean pickled cabbage, eight and a half pounds in eight minutes.
00:47Ice cream, 16 and a half pints, so that's over two gallons in six minutes.
01:00I really didn't plan for this to become, I guess, a career. My first ever eating competition was in 2011.
01:11I ate 12 and a half pounds of pho at a restaurant that was offering $1,500 to anybody who could complete it.
01:17And my friends had gone in, tried it as a joke, no intention of completing it,
01:22but I looked at their pictures and seriously thought, I think I could do this.
01:26So the next day, you know, without practice or preparation, I went in and I became the first person
01:31and the only person to date to collect that jackpot.
01:34Day to day, I honestly just love fresh produce. I love kale, broccoli, cucumbers.
01:39If you're going to eat like this in competition, you know, like a dozen times a year and do a couple practices,
01:46the other 350 days or, you know, other 340 days even kind of have to be, you know, good and disciplined and perfect.
01:56Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Coney Island on the 4th of July.
02:18I feel great. I took a lavender bubble bath last night. I got eight hours of sleep.
02:23My son Max cooperated. So anyway, I feel like today's gone as smoothly as I could hope for.
02:28We're down to the last hour. So right now I need to go prepare my hot water
02:33and make sure that makes it to the stage properly. But it's all details. I mean, I'm prepared.
02:53Three, two, one.
02:58I do best when I grab two meats and then I just bite, bite, bite and almost sever that and swallow
03:04because these are naturally cased hot dogs. So the casing is going to keep them intact.
03:07But if you kind of bite and score them, it makes them more bendable in your throat as you swallow.
03:12It's very, very rhythmic and very mechanical. There's very little left to chance.
03:18And while I'm doing that, I'll grab a bun and dunk that fully submerge it in my drink of choices,
03:24strawberry, orange, banana. I rip that in half. I roll the bun.
03:28So each half, pop that in my mouth and swallow it. So you continue that for the four halves
03:33and then just back to the meat. I have it set up in a way where I don't chew anything.
03:38Because the more that you chew, the more your salivary glands activate, the more you taste,
03:41the quicker you're going to get tired of the taste. And once the flavor fatigue kicks in,
03:45you really can't eat as fast or as much as you'd like to.
04:01Nick has beaten me by half a bratwurst. I've beaten him by half a street taco.
04:05We've literally tied at two of our most recent contests.
04:09So we're incredibly competitive, but we're also incredibly supportive of one another.
04:13At the end of the day, there's just an additional level of this unique respect that we have for one another
04:18because it's so different. It's such a niche sport and so unique that having that understanding
04:23for one another helps us appreciate and respect each other even more.
04:27If we're lucky, our son Max is just going to grow up thinking that we're so weird
04:31and he's going to want nothing to do with competitive eating.
04:43With 40 hot dogs and buns, the once and future champion of the world, Mickey Sudow!
04:55My plan for next year is to come back and give the crowd a new record that they deserve.
04:59Because I know I have 50 in me and I don't think I'm going to stop until I get back.
05:03I will say digestively, maybe four dozen hot dogs.
05:07It'll probably take me a little bit longer to digest.
05:12It'll probably take me about a full week to feel back to complete normal.
05:18Because your body can only process so many calories, but it needs time for all that to pass.
05:23If I'm going to be in a swimsuit, I want a week after eating hot dogs.
05:27I'm prone to tuning out whatever receptors in my mind tell me that I'm full.
05:31So yeah, while I do do technique practices, I'll do maybe one or two practices
05:36where you line up 10 minutes worth of hot dogs and go.
05:40It's really just for coordination's sake and for me to get in my rhythm.
05:43But in terms of capacity, I feel like I've always had this.
05:46Who doesn't like excelling at something?
05:48If you find a skill that puts you in the top, top fraction of a percent in the world,
05:54whatever that is, you would probably be inclined to pursue it.
05:58If you found out you were an amazing rock climber, or a gifted artist, or a sculptor, or a dancer,
06:04it's enjoyable to be good at something. So I think that's part of it too.
06:10www.circlelineartschool.com
Comments