The brouhaha surrounding this year's July 4th Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island carries on today, just like Joey Chestnut in the final moments of competition. Last week we reported that Major League Eating decided to split the contest into men's-and-women's sections in the interest of fairness. This was generally good news for fast-eatin' women, until it was revealed that the purse for the women's competition was only $2,500, compared to the men's prize of $10,000. Outrage ensued, until today.
"We were contacted by numerous fans of Nathan's who pointed out that despite the prize disparity in men's and women's divisions of other professional sports, the Nathan's prizes should be the same," Nathan's Famous President Wayne Norbitz told The Daily News. "We listened to that input."
This is good news for frontrunner Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, who is capable of eating 41 hot dogs (and buns!) in ten minutes, plus newcomers like Larell Marie Mell, who's working her way up from 15 hot dogs at the Nathan's Hot Dog qualifier match last year. And while not everyone is thrilled about all the competitive eating news, how can you deny the greatness of an event that stages an elephant-vs.-human eat-off for attention?
