Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP / Getty Images
A competitive eater is accused of cheating in the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating contest last week.
Nick Wehry, the husband of women's division champion Miki Sudo, was initially reported to have eaten 46.75 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, finishing fourth in the annual Fourth of July event, however, later credited for 51.75 hot dogs, according to the official Major League Eating (MLE) results website.
“100% he cheated,” a source told the New York Post on Tuesday (July 9).
Eaters' scores are tabulated based on the number of empty plates -- each of which were initially stacked with five hot dogs -- in front of them during the competition and any "debris" left uneaten are subject to judges' determination. Wehry is accused of stealing a plate from another competitors stack, which allowed him to add five additional hot dogs to his final tally.
The new score didn't bump Wehry's standing, but achieved the magic 50 figure that placed him in an "elite" class of competitive eaters.
“There’s a number of people who have eaten 40 hot dogs in this competition before, there’s a lot fewer who have eaten more than 50, and even fewer who have eaten over 60,” another source told the New York Post. “For someone to have on the record that they ate more than 50, makes you part of a very small elite club of competitive eaters.”
This year's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest was already marred with controversy after the banning of 16-time champion and world record holder Joey Chestnut due to his endorsement of Impossible Foods' vegan frankfurter. Chestnut, instead, competed in the Fort Bliss July 4th Celebration against U.S. military veterans, eating 57 frankfurters and nearly tying Nathan's winner Patrick Bertoletti's total of 58 in half the time.
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