Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest: Meet the first family of competitive eating

Less than two weeks before the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, Miki Sudo and Nick Wehry lay out in their kitchen everything they need to consume nearly 90 hot dogs in 10 minutes: Hot dogs and buns, three griddles, 13 32-ounce Wawa cups, paper plates, a water bottle for Sudo, two yellow Gatorades for Wehry and a folding table.

It's late June and 98 degrees in Tampa, Florida, but Sudo and Wehry try to simulate contest conditions as closely as possible, which means everything is hauled downstairs outside of their apartment. Only a few weeks ago, Wehry devoured his hot dogs in the rain — soggy buns and all.

«We haven't done a full practice together in a while,» Sudo says. «Not since 2019? No, 2020.»

«Usually one of us has to practice and the other one's on baby duty,» Wehry says.

They're the highest-ranked couple in Major League Eating and the first to do it with a baby. Sudo is ranked No. 1 among women and third overall; Wehry is fourth and has climbed higher every year. She owns world records in ice cream (2 gallons in six minutes), and kimchi (8.5 pounds in 6 minutes); he is the record holder in hard-boiled eggs (50 in 3:02 minutes).

Together, they demolished 88 hot dogs as a couple at Nathan's in 2020. Sudo won the women's division and broke the record with 48.5 hot dogs, while Wehry came in third with 39.5. In short, they're the top dogs of competitive eating.

But how do they train their bodies to inhale calories like air? And how do their stomachs feel afterwards? Hungry for answers, we sent a camera crew, a photographer and a reporter to find out.

For Sudo and Wehry, discovering an appetite for competitive eating was by happenstance. Sudo was a broke college student who learned that a local restaurant was offering