Miki Sudo has been a dominant force in competitive eating for over a decade, and the 2026 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest was no different. The forty-year-old took home the pink belt for the twelfth time at Coney Island, eating 38 3/4 hot dogs and buns in ten minutes. Joey Chestnut won the men’s title for the eighteenth time, downing sixty-six.
“I’m just glad I could celebrate America 250 in this way,” Sudo said.
Miki Sudo has been married to Nick Wehry, who is thirty-seven years old and a fellow competitive eater. As per a report shared by The Sun, the couple share a son, Maxwell Samuel Wehry, who was born on July 8, 2021. Sudo is also a stepmother to Nick’s two children from a previous relationship, William and Sylvie.
Miki Sudo and Nick Wehry open up about their love story rooted in competitive eating:
Nick Wehry, who is now ranked sixth in Major League Eating, has been Miki Sudo’s biggest supporter for years. Sudo herself sits just one spot above him at fifth. Back in 2024, the couple opened up to 6ABC about how their relationship came to be, and it turns out the sport brought them together in more ways than one.
Miki Sudo had spotted Wehry at the gym during a pre-competition workout and walked up to introduce herself, asking him to take a photo. Nothing more came of it that day. A year went by before a mutual friend nudged them toward each other, and even then, Wehry wasn’t sure it would go anywhere.
“I thought she wouldn’t give me the time of day! But fortunately, she did, and fast forward to now,” he shared.
Miki Sudo put it simply when reflecting on what competitive eating has meant for her personal life.
“We like to say we didn’t choose competitive eating, competitive eating chose us,” she said.
The proposal itself was pure Nick Wehry. As per Major League Eating, at the 2021 DraftKings Red Carpet Film Feast, Wehry set a world record eating fifty hard-boiled eggs in exactly three minutes and four seconds. The moment the contest ended, he dropped to one knee and proposed to Miki right then and there.
Miki Sudo reveals what it really takes to compete at the highest level of competitive eating:
Sudo sat down with Newsweek in 2023 and got into the details of her preparation for Nathan’s, which she calls “the big one.” Three things go into it, she said. The physical work, the strategy and the mental game. In her opinion, it’s the mental piece that matters most.
On the physical side, she works out regularly on top of the actual eating practice and travels the country competing in Major League Eating contests throughout the year. The strategy piece is quieter. She goes back and watches old tapes of herself, looking for anything in her technique she can tighten up.
Miki Sudo also touched on what physical training looks like for her specifically, given the conditions at Coney Island every Fourth of July.
“I like to take care of myself, and for me, that includes a lot of cardio because it helps me build up my tolerance, especially for exerting all that energy outside under the New York sun,” she said.
“Generally, I just try to take care of my health overall,” she added.
Miki Sudo opens up about the whim that accidentally launched her competitive eating career:
Sudo wasn’t chasing a career in competitive eating. She wasn’t even thinking about it. As per a report shared by Newsweek, the whole thing started in 2011 on a whim, at a Vietnamese restaurant in Las Vegas. The place was offering around $1,500 to anyone who could finish a twelve-pound bowl of pho in the allotted time. Her friends tried but they failed. Then she saw photos of the bowl and decided to have a go herself.
“I’ve always been one to try new things and always down for adventure, so I just kind of decided to give it a try and I plugged away,” Sudo said.
“I finished this challenge, and then they put me up on a billboard and they started getting requests to do other challenges. Once I realized that there was a competitive circuit, that’s when my competitive streak really got the best of me,” Sudo added.
She also weighed in on what actually separates the top eaters from everyone else. A combination of genetics, training and competitive drive, she said. But one of those three matters far more than the rest.
“I would say the most important component is a competitive drive,” she shared.
“Nick and I, for example, we hate losing even more than we like winning, so while it’s important to like food, that alone is not going to make you a top competitive eater because a lot of people enjoy eating. If you don’t have that drive to win, you’re not going to find yourself doing a hot dog practice in 92-degree weather,” she added.
Edited by Ryan D’souza