Foodievents

Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest Achieves Gender Equality

Photo: Michael Nagle/Getty Images

When the organizers of the annual celebration of the human condition Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest announced that this year they’d divide the contestants into a men’s contest and a women’s contest, they also announced that the prize for the female competition would be considerably less than the prize for the men’s: $2,500, as compared to $10,000. We’ll spare you any wiener jokes and just tell you that the discrepancy has been corrected!

Officials have announced that they will indeed raise the women’s pot to be level with the men’s. Nathan’s Famous president Wayne Norbitz told the Daily News, “We were contacted by numerous fans of Nathan’s who pointed out that despite the prize disparity in men’s and women’s divisions of other professional sports, the Nathan’s prizes should be the same.” Hear that, complainers? The hot-dog-eating contest is more progressive than other professional sports.

Fitness instructor Larelle Mele, who hopes to qualify for this year’s competition, had this to say: “I’m doing something I love and there’s a chance I’ll get paid to do it … It doesn’t get better than that.”

No, Larelle, it certainly doesn’t.

Nathan’s raises women’s prize to $10,000 in hot dog-eating contest, even with men’s purse [NYDN]

Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest Achieves Gender Equality