Athletes set to compete in hot dog challenge

Coney Island—The annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest has become something many Americans enjoy on the Fourth of July over recent years. This year, however, it has picked up more momentum than ever. Nathan’s Famous CEO, Eric Gatoff had concerns if it would be as successful this year, amid the pandemic. As luck would have it, he had nothing to worry about.

“With all sports being put on the back burner, we had a lot of people show interest being involved with the event”, said Gatoff. “turns out a lot of athletes and sports personalities are huge fans of eating massive amounts of hot dogs.”

Joey Chestnut returns to defend his title, gunning for his fifth straight and 13th overall win, but the field looks a lot different this year. Charles Barkley, Zion Williamson, John Daly, Bartolo Colon, Butterbean, David Ortiz, and David Wells all stepped up to enter the fray.

“Making the NBA has always my dream, but being in this competition is right there with it” Zion Williamson

“I was just disappointed there weren’t any qualifiers. I was looking forward to doing this more than once.”

Charles Barkley

“They told me no drinking. We’ll see about that”

John Daly

“Trae los hot dogs. ¡Soy el rey de los concursos gastronómicos!”

David Ortiz

Things will surely be interesting this year as sports books have opened up to allow betting on the event. Chestnut, the favorite, is -1400. Here is the rest of the field:

Barkley -200

Daly +100

Ortiz +200

Colon +200

Butterbean +400

Wells +800

Williamson +1000

The event will be televised on ESPN, coverage beginning at 12 pm, EST.