PORT RICHEY, FL — In a 4th of July tradition that’s nearly as old as fireworks and backyard barbecues, a Port Richey couple has qualified once again to compete in the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest.
Nick Wehry, 34, qualified for the contest earlier this year after eating 44 hot dogs in 10 minutes in a qualifying competition. This will be Wehry’s fifth time competing in the hot dog-eating event in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York.
He will join his fiancé, Miki Sudo, 37, who automatically qualified for the competition after earning first place in the women’s division in 2022, her eighth time to receive the top ranking in the Independence Day contest.
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“It would have been her ninth consecutive year, but she skipped 2021 because she was giving birth to our son Max,” said Wehry. Max is the youngest of the couple’s three children.
Sudo and Wehry are among the world’s top competitive eaters on the Major League Eating circuit. Between them, they’ve filled their Port Richey home with championship belts and trophies for consuming everything from the Buffalo wings to doughnut holes.
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Wehry said this year’s Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest will be especially challenging. Sudo ranks third in the world and Wehry ranks fourth in the world. They’ll compete against good friends like Joey Chestnut, the top male champion of all time with 15 titles.
The women’s competition will stream on the ESPN app at 10:45 a.m. with a camera feed dedicated to Sudo at 11 a.m. on ESPN3.
The men’s competition will kick off at noon on ESPN2 and stream on the ESPN app.
It was during one of these competitions that the couple met and fell in love.
At the 2021 The DraftKings Red Carpet Film Feast, Wehry ate a world-record 50 hard-boiled eggs in three minutes and four seconds.
Making the win even more memorable, he dropped to one knee in front of the crowd and proposed to Sudo, who was pregnant with their third child, Max, at the time.
“It’s a gift and a curse,” Wehry said of their ability to consume large quantities of food while maintaining an enviable low body fat percentage.
He said both he and Sudo are blessed with metabolisms that allow them to eat just about anything without gaining weight.
“I’ve always been a big eater. It’s kind of a running joke among my friends,” Wehry told Patch. “Both Miki and I are genetically predisposed, allowing us to eat large quantities of food without gaining weight.”
Nevertheless, Wehry and Sudo didn’t set out to become world champion junk food eaters.
On the contrary, as a professional body builder for 12 years, Wehry carefully watched every calorie and carb he consumed.
Likewise, Sudo, born to a European American mother and Japanese father, is a major advocate of eating organic, vitamin-packed foods, a habit they’ve passed on to their children, who they encourage to try new foods by cooking together as a family.
“We’re both big on nutrition,” said Wehry, who managed a Vitamin Shoppe store for 10 years.
When they’re not competing or getting ready to compete, their diets consist of nutrient-dense foods such as boneless, skinless chicken, kale, spinach, fruit, egg whites, oatmeal and avocados.
“The contents of our refrigerator are very boring,” Wehry said.
Wehry said his foray into the world of competitive eating began as a lark. In 2017, a friend dared Wehry to enter a doughnut hole-eating contest. He accepted the challenge and handily won the competition.
In the process, he discovered that competitive eating can be lucrative in terms of prize money and sponsorships.
“It just snowballed from there. Once you get on ESPN and start traveling to competitions around the world, making money, you see there’s this entire culture around professional eating. It takes the skill and discipline of a professional athlete,” Wehry told Patch. “I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to make a living doing something that can be a lot of fun, and offers the chance to travel around the world.”
When he met Sudo in a hotel gym in Manhattan after both qualified for the Nathan’s Hot Dog contest in 2018, she was already a well-known eating champion, having won first place in the women’s division of the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest every year from 2014 to 2017.
Her winning streak continued in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022, consuming between 31 and 48.5 hot dogs each year.
“She’s phenomenal,” said Wehry. “She has much more rhythm and grace than I do.”
Sudo, 37, holds degrees in international business and finance and is currently attending Hillsborough Community College to become a dental hygienist.
The couple relocated from Hartford, Connecticut, to Tampa Bay in 2021 to be closer to an international airport, so they could travel to competitions around the world, such as a Jell-O-eating competition in Milan, Italy, in February and an oyster-eating contest in Northern Ireland.
“You’d be surprised at how many eating events are held every year,” said Wehry. “It’s become a major part of the entertainment industry. I love being able to travel all over the world, experiencing foods. And most of the competitions are fundraisers for good causes.”
He said they typically compete in 15 to 20 events a year, and, whenever possible, take their three children with them.
In addition to her first-place ranking in the Nathan’s hot dog contest, the 5-feet, 6-inch, 130-pound Sudo has won first place in the Foxwoods World Turkey-Eating Championship in Mashantucket, Connecticut; first in the Western Days Festival World Tamale-Eating Championship in Lewisville, Texas; first in Chicago’s Ribmania Eating Championship, is a two-time first-place winner in the U.S. National Buffalo Wing-Eating Championship and first in the Buffalo Buffet Bowl in Buffalo, New York; first in the World Kimchi-Eating Championship in Chicago; and is a two-time first-place champion in the Hooters Wing-Eating Championship in Clearwater.
Additionally, she’s come in second or third place in deep-fried asparagus, gyros, pepperoni rolls, pies, meat pies, corn dogs, birthday cake, ice cream, chili, sweet corn, pierogi, pork roll, burrito, pasta, shrimp cocktail, hard-boiled eggs, Twinkie, taco, oyster, bratwurst, gumbo and pumpkin pie championships.
Wehry holds records for eating the most hard-boiled eggs (50 in 2021) and the most pistachios (188 in eight minutes in February).
While the training for food competitions isn’t quite as rigorous as sports competitions, Wehry said it does take physical conditioning.
“We’re extremely active,” he said. “We go on lots of walks together, and I still do a lot of weightlifting, while Miki prefers cardio exercise.”
Prior to competing, the couple fasts for 24 hours, living on coconut water and amino acids.
Nevertheless, Wehry said it’s difficult to predict how they’ll perform in competition.
“You have some really good days when it just flows and the food goes down easily, and other days when you feel like you’re running through cement,” he said.
History Of Nathan’s Hot-Dog Contest
According to ESPN, the competition has been held on every Fourth of July since 1972.
Major League Eating has managed the event since 1997.
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During the competition, participants must eat as many Nathan’s Famous hot dogs in buns as they can within a 10-minute period. Each contestant gets his or her own scorekeeper, who notes the number of hot dogs eaten during the contest window.
Other rules include:
The first-place winner will receive $10,000; second place gets $5,000; third place gets $2,500; fourth place gets $1,500; and fifth place gets $1,000.
Additionally, the top male competitor gets a mustard yellow bedazzled belt and the top female competitor gets a pink mustard bedazzled belt.
For more information, visit the couple’s website and blog, The Hungry Couple.
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