| Hey, it’s Matt. Here in America, Independence Day is upon us. There are lots of traditions tied to the holiday, and one of the biggest is the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest — the pinnacle of competitive eating. The event has come a long way since its official debut in 1972. Attendance usually tops 30,000 on Fourth of July at Brooklyn’s Coney Island. ESPN has had the media rights for two decades and ratings routinely top a million viewers. Last year’s contest was notable for who was missing. Joey Chestnut is the undisputed GOAT and currently ranked No. 1 in Major League Eating. (Yes, there’s a league.) Heading into the 2024 event, he’d won 16 of 17 contests, including eight straight. But MLE barred Chestnut from competing because — according to reports at the time — he had a sponsorship with Impossible Foods, a plant-based meat producer considered a competitor to Nathan’s. That left an opening for Chicagoan Patrick Bertoletti, who had gotten back into competitive eating in his late 30s after an eight-year hiatus. With Chestnut — a good friend — sidelined, he trained harder and hit a personal best of 58 hot dogs in 10 minutes to win his first Mustard Belt and the $10,000 prize for first. (Chestnut ate a record 76 hot dogs in 2021.)  Bertoletti won his first Mustard Belt last year after downing 58 hot dogs. Photographer: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Getty Images A week before this year’s contest, Bertoletti, now 40, chatted with me about preparing to face Chestnut, who’s back in the event, and the business of competitive eating. Before we jumped on the phone, I looked at the more than 30 records you hold in MLE. They include 47 slices of pizza in 10 minutes, a 22-ounce Slurpee in 9 seconds and nearly 11 pounds of key lime pie in seven minutes. Which records are your favorite?
I did blueberries last summer. Eighteen-and-half pounds in eight minutes. The total is pretty staggering, and it sounds like a lot. It will be hard to beat that record. Also, I did 275 pickled jalapeños in eight minutes. That's another really good one. How does one end up being a competitive eater? A lot of people like to eat. What was the spark for you? One year when I was a teenager at a company picnic, I ate against a bunch of grown men in a pie eating contest, and I won. That was the start of it.  Bertoletti says his technique for eating hot dogs is pretty standard. He soaks the buns in warm water and eats them separately from the hot dogs. Photographer: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Getty Images Just to give the readers a sense of your build, the MLE website says you’re 190 pounds. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. That’s my license weight. I weigh like 230. I’m 6-2. I get that racing to eat the most hot dogs or fudge – an event you won in March with more than nine pounds in eight minutes – are competitions. But do you consider this a sport and yourself an athlete? I just refuse to believe that anything that I do very well is that important or cool, but yes, it’s a sport. We take the eating part very seriously, and it is very difficult. There's a lot of preparation going in, practicing with the food, just keeping your stomach ready and elastic. None of the top eaters are very overweight so you try to balance out with a healthy diet outside [the competitive eating]. What goes into the training? I started the prep four-and-a-half months ago. I kind of forgot how difficult the training is. Usually with the food, I'll practice just to develop a technique and a tolerance to the food, but Nathan’s is to another level where you’re doing a lot more of it. So you do roughly one practice run a week where you simulate the competition. You cook up dozens of hot dogs and see how many you can eat in 10 minutes. What’s that like? It's not fun. I usually have my girlfriend over. You always need to have somebody there. You never want to do it by yourself. That's not a smart thing. It’s better to have someone there to cheer you on.  The contest draws thousands of fans to Coney Island every July 4, and airs on ESPN2. Photographer: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images You’re ranked No. 2 in MLE’s rankings. How does the return of Chestnut impact this trip to Coney Island? Honestly, I like this better. There’s less pressure. Nobody is looking at me to do anything. They’ll just automatically assume that it’s his to win. It’s not changing my motivation. I'm still trying to do my best. If Joey is motivated, he’s really difficult to beat. He’s got a mental edge over everyone. There might be something genetically with his body type or his throat muscles. He’s just good. He’s never satisfied with himself. He’s always tinkering. He’s very smart and savvy. What goes through your mind during the hot dog eating contest? You really just have to work on staying calm during because you do get excited. And with the stress and the panic and anxiety, you have to go in with a better gameplan. What I’ve found is it really comes down to the last two minutes in the contest. Everybody else is going to slow down, but if you can stay calm and consistent, that’s what makes or breaks the competition. We call it the wall, where you just really slow down. That usually happens to me really bad. But for some reason last year, I was able to get over that hurdle. You naturally slow down as you get fuller and your muscles get tired. You are usually limping to the finish line. But if you can keep up the pace and sprint to the finish line, that’s really the difference.
This is a side gig for you, with your full-time job being a cook for a catering company. Most first-place prizes on the MLE circuit range from about $2,000 to $5,000. How much money do you make? It’s not a ton. Last year, I made about $20,000. The money is nice. I’m not going to turn down money, but I really do it for the experiences and the people and the travel opportunities. I’ve gotten to go and do a lot of really cool stuff. A couple months ago, I got to go to Japan for a week-and-a-half. It was for a television show. In the first round, I had to eat hot pot and then in the finals we ate ramen. I tied for third with the other American, Geoffrey Esper. Eating boiling hot ramen for an hour was difficult.
I did have to work because I ate a lot, but it was basically like a paid work vacation. (Editor’s note: This interview has been edited and condensed to make it digestible.) - The WNBA is adding teams in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia with a record expansion fee, pointing to how far the league has come in recent years. All three teams will be owned by the owners of the NBA team in that city.
- The drama surrounding Crystal Palace will linger after UEFA postponed a decision on whether its owner broke multi-club rules. At stake is the London club’s first ever trip to a major European competition.
- The investment arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is in talks to invest in the organizers of the Michael Moritz-backed T100 Triathlon World Tour.
- The Columbus Crew, of Major League Soccer, sold a 10% stake at a valuation of $900 million. (Sportico)
Club World Cup, Week 2: C (Down from B+) | Hello, it’s David. The third week of the Club World Cup has been a satisfying one — in some ways. For starters, there has been the surprise of Al-Hilal beating Manchester City, which will surely delight the Saudi sponsors of the tournament. And Real Madrid's defeat of Juventus at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium was played out in front of an enthusiastic 62,000 fans, many decked out in the white shirts of the Spanish side. On the downside, however, scorching weather has played havoc with training sessions and some of the matches, most notably during Chelsea's victory against Benfica. Just four minutes away from full-time, the players were taken off for nearly two hours before coming back on to play 30 minutes of extra-time.  A weather delay displayed on a screen during the Club World Cup match between Portugal's Benfica and England's Chelsea Photographer: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca questioned whether the tournament should ever have been played in a country where there is such extreme weather at this time of year. And Chelsea's game was played in front of just 26,000 fans at a stadium that can hold 74,000. By the time the players returned from their enforced weather break, there was only a smattering of spectators remaining. A constant theme of the tournament is the lack of fans backing the European teams, with the exception of Real Madrid. Tickets for Chelsea’s quarterfinal against Brazil’s Palmeiras on Friday in Philadelphia now start at about $45, down from about $80 a few days ago. The cost of traveling to the US seems to be putting off all but the most dedicated fans from England. And it wouldn't be a surprise if some of the colorful Palmeiras supporters had to return home after their club’s stay lasted longer than expected. | 
