Eat a hot dog, run 100m. Could Joey Chestnut eat fast enough to take down Bolt?

Usain Bolt and joey chestnut

 

On Saturday, the PGA tour sparked an oddly serious debate with a TikTok: who would win in a race between sprint legend Usain Bolt and the world’s greatest competitive eater, Joey Chestnut–with one big twist?

 

The challenge: Eat (and swallow) a full hot dog and bun before sprinting 100m.

 

At first glance, Bolt seems like the obvious choice. His 100m world record of 9.58 seconds has stood untouched since 2009. Even his slowest recorded race was 10.40 seconds. While he’s been retired since 2017, he’s still just 39, 6’5” and famously athletic.

 

But Chestnut is a very fast eater. Known as “Jaws,” the 41-year-old from Vallejo, Calif., holds 55 world records in various eating dicisiplines and has won Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest 17 times. His best performance is 76 dogs in 10 minutes–an average of 7.9 seconds per hot dog, bun included. For just one dog, he could likely inhale it in three to four seconds flat.

 

Bolt, on the other hand, would probably take at least 10 to 15 seconds to chew and swallow–and that’s if he practises his technique a few times beforehand. But once the dog is scarfed down, his “sluggish” post-retirement 100m time would still likely be quicker than 11 seconds.

 

Chestnut: about 3-4 seconds for the hot dog, plus 17-20 seconds running. Total: 20-24 seconds.

 

Bolt: At least 10-15 seconds for eating, plus 11 seconds running. Total: 21-26 seconds.

 

That gives Chestnut a real shot at winning. Some PGA tour golfers, including Max Homa, Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala, are putting their money on Chestnut. But Jordan Spieth and Maverick McNealy believe Bolt can successfully close the gap in the sprint.

 

Fans–also divided on who would take the win–are begging for a showdown in real life. “You don’t understand how much money I would pay to see the answer to this,” one TikTok user commented.