Hi There,

Adam here from Transparent Labs.

I asked you all last week:

In a race to find the fastest person to eat a single hotdog and then run 100m, who do you think would win between:

Joey Chestnut: current holder of 55 competitive eating world records across 55 disciplines, including the record for the most hot dogs and buns eaten in 10 minutes at 76
Usain Bolt: 8-time Olympic gold medalist, world record holder in the 4x100m relay, 200m and 100m at 9.58s, making him the fastest human of all time

I've got the results from the poll. And it was NOT what I was expecting.

61% of you said that the fastest running man alive would win, and here's why I think you're wrong.

For the sake of the argument, I'll give each man their "world record" performance in their own discipline. That means:

For Usain Bolt: pretty simple, we'll give him the 9.58s for the 100m
For Joey Chestnut: this isn't quite as simple. When asked about this exact question, Joey said in an interview in 2025 that he can do a single hotdog in about 2 seconds, however watching back his old world-record performance of 75 hotdogs in 10 minutes, he eats his first 2 hotdogs in just over 6 seconds. So I say we call it 3 seconds for Joey's hotdog portion.

Now for the "off" events.

Let's talk about Joey's 100m run first. According to the Marathon Handbook, a "beginner" male runner aged 40-45 has an average running time of about 14.5s. However, Joey actually did this challenge about a year ago, albeit with kielbasa instead of a hotdog, and his 100m time was around 21s.

This means that Joey would finish his race in roughly 24-25 seconds.

Now the question really becomes: "how fast can Usain Bolt eat a single hotdog?" There isn't a great way to tell how quick of an eater he is, so I'm going to use data from this study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania on the effects of competitive speed eating. Their control subject in the experiment managed to eat 7 hotdogs in 10 minutes, or about one hotdog every 85 seconds.

Even IF Usain Bolt is as as adept an eater as he is on the track, finishing a hotdog in under 20 seconds itself would be remarkable for a non-competitive eater, at which point Joey would nearly at the finish line. This also isn't taking into account the fact that both men are running AFTER having eaten that hotdog, so I doubt we'd be seeing a 9.58s performance from Usain on the run.

I do think the big "if" here is training and prep time. While I don't think there's much to be gained from Joey's 100m, I think with some practice and an effective speed eating technique from Usain, we could be looking at more of a race. But if the race were to happen tomorrow (unless Usain has been doing some serious training behind-the-scenes), I think Joey is a pretty safe bet.

Send me a reply with how you approached thinking about it!

Long story short: I love questions like this that actually make you use your brain. Not everything in life has to be so serious!

Have a great week!

Yours in transparency,

Adam

Team TL

PS: Ever had a competition or performance that didn't go as planned? You aren't alone; it's something that also happens to some of the best athletes in the world. If you haven't seen our recent documentary about TL Performance Partner Hafthor Bjornsson's recent attempt to deadlift 511kg, definitely give this a watch.

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