Paige Spiranac is a social media influencer with 4 million followers on Instagram, 1.5 million on TikTok, and another million on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. While those numbers have no bearing on whether she can fill Joey Chestnut’s shoes, she nonetheless offered to occupy that Chestnut-sized void in this year’s Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.
The speed eater dashed his chance to participate when he agreed to promote one of Nathan’s competitors: the plant-based meat purveyor Impossible Foods. Perhaps seeing an opportunity to hog the spotlight or capture it with a meatless alternative, Spiranac tweeted, “I’m available to fill in. My record is 6.5 hotdogs in 10 minutes.” She later corrected the record because she had only consumed six. Too bad eating contests aren’t like golf, where lowering your score actually raises your rank in the competition.
If this clearly non-serious bid to replace Chestnut was informed by golf, it would be par for the course. In addition to being an influencer, Spiranac is a golf instructor and ex-pro golfer. She posts tutorials on the sport and opines about matters like PGA rules and swamp butt. She has posed provocatively with putters, sat in a golf ball-filled bathtub, and rubbed elbows with hall-of-fame golfer Gary Player.
Although Spiranac’s career highlights don’t scream “competitive eater” (or even whisper it), she might have Chestnut beat in one regard. She is, in her words, “the self-proclaimed queen of hot dogs” (via Marca).
