Alaska Iditarod Winner: Dallas Seavey Takes The Coveted Crown For The Third Straight Time
Dallas Seavey was the winner of the 2016 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race after crossing the finish line in Nome, Alaska, early Tuesday morning. This is the fourth win and third straight for the 29-year-old musher in the last five years he has competed in the famous 1,000-mile trek.
Fox News reports that Dallas Seavey was first to arrive in Nome at 2:20 a.m. after traveling eight days, 11 hours, 20 minutes, and 16 seconds. Seavey beat his previous record time set in 2014 of eight days, 13 hours, four minutes, and 19 seconds.
Seavey ran beside his dog team as he crossed the finish line to the cheering and clapping of the crowd lined up on Front Street. Many stood out in the cold just to hold out their cell phone and snap pictures of the four-time champ.
“This was a heck of a trip, all the way from the start. It was up and down,” Seavey said. “But we made it work.”
Also at the finish line was Seavey’s wife, Jen, 5-year-old daughter Annie, and brother Danny. They were joined by Seavey’s mother, Janine, as well as grandfather Dan Seavey, one of the Iditarod’s pioneers.
By the time Seavey completed the race, he was down to six dogs from the nine he had started with. Reef and Tide were the lead dogs, then followed by Lobben, Candle, Ripple, and Barley. Iditarod rule No. 17 states a musher must finish with at least five dogs to be eligible for a win.
“What makes Reef such an awesome, awesome sled dog and such an awesome lead dog is his drive to go,” Seavey said.
Since starting his racing career, Seavey’s only loss was to his father. Mitch Seavey was the Iditarod winner in 2013, but placed second this year, pulling in just behind his son.
On March 6, the 2016 Iditarod started in Willow, Alaska, a town 50 miles north of Anchorage. The grueling trail took mushers and their dog teams through two mountain ranges, next to the Yukon River and alongside the Bering Sea coastline.
The race started with 85 mushers, but 12 have since dropped out. Four-time champion Lance Mackey left the trail for personal health reasons on Monday.
Unfortunately, the 2016 Alaska Iditarod was marred with tragedy. Just before the Nulato checkpoint, two mushers were allegedly attacked when a drunk snowmobile driver intentionally ran down the teams.
As reported previously by the Inquisitr, Arnold Demoski is accused of deliberately driving his snowmobile into musher Aliy Zirkle’s team, which injured several dogs. Later on that morning, Demoski ran down Jeff King’s sled, killing one dog and injuring two others.
Zirkle, who had eventually reached the checkpoint early Saturday morning, told a race official about the incident.
“Someone tried to kill me with a snowmachine,” said Zirkle, who appeared visibly shaken up by the event.
Demoski claims he was drunk and doesn’t remember striking the teams. Nonetheless, the intoxicated driver has been charged with assault, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving.
At a hearing on Sunday, Fairbanks District Court Magistrate Dominick DiBenedetto said Demoski’s irresponsible actions may amount to acts of terrorism. Bail has been set at $50,000, but DiBenedetto still has the option to increase it to as much as $500,000.
Seavey made it to Nulato after the disastrous early morning events that struck Zirkle and King.
Strategy and patience are keys to winning the Iditarod, according to Seavey. To achieve success, you need to properly time your moves, and many less experienced mushers have not learned how to do that.
“He’s undoubtedly the best dog racer there is, and I’m proud to be here with him,” Mitch Seavey said of his son.
By becoming the 2016 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race winner, Dallas Seavey will take home $75,000 in prize money and a new Dodge vehicle. This win put Seavey in an exclusive club of four-time champions and the fourth musher to ever win three straight races. Rick Swenson is the only musher to have ever taken the crown five times.
[Photo by Mark Thiessen/AP]
