Meet competitive eating champion Miki Sudo

Brut America

How many hot dogs could you eat in 10 minutes?  Miki Sudo's record is 48 and a half, and that's because she's one of the world's top competitive eaters ... Brut caught up with the champion as she prepared to defend her title at Coney Island's annual hot dog eating contest.

Transcript

00:00It's weird to think of competitive eating as skills, as a gift, but you know, some people are good singers,

00:04some people are amazing at mental math. For me, it's competitive eating.

00:31I'm best known for the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating competition. I'm undefeated on the women's side.

00:36My record is the world record at 48 and a half hot dogs, but I also do other competitions all throughout the year.

00:42I hold the world record for kimchi, so Korean pickled cabbage, eight and a half pounds in eight minutes.

00:47Ice cream, 16 and a half pints, so that's over two gallons in six minutes.

01:00I really didn't plan for this to become, I guess, a career. My first ever eating competition was in 2011.

01:11I ate 12 and a half pounds of pho at a restaurant that was offering $1,500 to anybody who could complete it.

01:17And my friends had gone in, tried it as a joke, no intention of completing it,

01:22but I looked at their pictures and seriously thought, I think I could do this.

01:26So the next day, you know, without practice or preparation, I went in and I became the first person

01:31and the only person to date to collect that jackpot.

01:34Day to day, I honestly just love fresh produce. I love kale, broccoli, cucumbers.

01:39If you're going to eat like this in competition, you know, like a dozen times a year and do a couple practices,

01:46the other 350 days or, you know, other 340 days even kind of have to be, you know, good and disciplined and perfect.

01:56Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Coney Island on the 4th of July.

02:18I feel great. I took a lavender bubble bath last night. I got eight hours of sleep.

02:23My son Max cooperated. So anyway, I feel like today's gone as smoothly as I could hope for.

02:28We're down to the last hour. So right now I need to go prepare my hot water

02:33and make sure that makes it to the stage properly. But it's all details. I mean, I'm prepared.

02:53Three, two, one.

02:58I do best when I grab two meats and then I just bite, bite, bite and almost sever that and swallow

03:04because these are naturally cased hot dogs. So the casing is going to keep them intact.

03:07But if you kind of bite and score them, it makes them more bendable in your throat as you swallow.

03:12It's very, very rhythmic and very mechanical. There's very little left to chance.

03:18And while I'm doing that, I'll grab a bun and dunk that fully submerge it in my drink of choices,

03:24strawberry, orange, banana. I rip that in half. I roll the bun.

03:28So each half, pop that in my mouth and swallow it. So you continue that for the four halves

03:33and then just back to the meat. I have it set up in a way where I don't chew anything.

03:38Because the more that you chew, the more your salivary glands activate, the more you taste,

03:41the quicker you're going to get tired of the taste. And once the flavor fatigue kicks in,

03:45you really can't eat as fast or as much as you'd like to.

04:01Nick has beaten me by half a bratwurst. I've beaten him by half a street taco.

04:05We've literally tied at two of our most recent contests.

04:09So we're incredibly competitive, but we're also incredibly supportive of one another.

04:13At the end of the day, there's just an additional level of this unique respect that we have for one another

04:18because it's so different. It's such a niche sport and so unique that having that understanding

04:23for one another helps us appreciate and respect each other even more.

04:27If we're lucky, our son Max is just going to grow up thinking that we're so weird

04:31and he's going to want nothing to do with competitive eating.

04:43With 40 hot dogs and buns, the once and future champion of the world, Mickey Sudow!

04:55My plan for next year is to come back and give the crowd a new record that they deserve.

04:59Because I know I have 50 in me and I don't think I'm going to stop until I get back.

05:03I will say digestively, maybe four dozen hot dogs.

05:07It'll probably take me a little bit longer to digest.

05:12It'll probably take me about a full week to feel back to complete normal.

05:18Because your body can only process so many calories, but it needs time for all that to pass.

05:23If I'm going to be in a swimsuit, I want a week after eating hot dogs.

05:27I'm prone to tuning out whatever receptors in my mind tell me that I'm full.

05:31So yeah, while I do do technique practices, I'll do maybe one or two practices

05:36where you line up 10 minutes worth of hot dogs and go.

05:40It's really just for coordination's sake and for me to get in my rhythm.

05:43But in terms of capacity, I feel like I've always had this.

05:46Who doesn't like excelling at something?

05:48If you find a skill that puts you in the top, top fraction of a percent in the world,

05:54whatever that is, you would probably be inclined to pursue it.

05:58If you found out you were an amazing rock climber, or a gifted artist, or a sculptor, or a dancer,

06:04it's enjoyable to be good at something. So I think that's part of it too.

06:10www.circlelineartschool.com

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