Jessie Holmes repeated as champion of the Iditarod sled dog race, arriving in Nome, Alaska, on Tuesday night after 9 days, 7 hours and 32 minutes of racing across the roughly 1,000-mile route.
Holmes, a former reality TV star who has appeared for eight years on National Geographic’s “Life Below Zero,” finished ahead of the field after guiding his team of 12 dogs across the finish line in the old Gold Rush town, a Bering Sea coastal community where the crowd cheered as he raised both fists. After the finish, his dogs “devoured some meat,” according to coverage of the run.
In describing his path through the race, Holmes tied the second straight championship to what he said was a mental focus on following up an initial victory. Holmes said he had been thinking about competitors who manage to return and win again, saying, “I’ve been chasing greatness ever since the last time I was here,” and adding that he planned to keep “chasing those footsteps, trying to push ourselves every day to be better.”
Holmes said one of the key changes this year involved how his lead dogs were used. He noted that his lead dog Zeus led every run except one, and he described holding back older lead dog Polar earlier in the race so Polar would not have to do as much work before he was put in after the last checkpoint before Nome. Holmes said that move paid off when he swapped Polar in, describing how Polar “puffed his chest out” and “got his strut on.”
Looking ahead, Holmes said he plans to aim for a third win next year and to break the record for what he called the southern route, which he said is the team’s favorite. The victory also put him among a short list of repeat Iditarod champions: in the race’s 54-year history, Holmes became the third competitor to repeat the year after winning for the first time, joining Susan Butcher and Lance Mackey.
The Iditarod began March 8 in Willow, a day after a ceremonial start in Anchorage. The course took teams and mushers over two mountain ranges, across the frozen Yukon River, and over the “unpredictable Bering Sea ice,” according to the race coverage.
Holmes’ win carried a prize of about $80,000, and the reporting said the purse this year was boosted by financial support from Norwegian billionaire Kjell Rokke. Coverage described Rokke’s participation in a newly created, noncompetitive amateur category, including rules that allowed him outside support from a former Iditarod champ, flexible rest periods and the ability to swap out dogs.
Rokke, who lives in Switzerland, provided $100,000 in additional prize money and $170,000 to Alaska Native villages that serve as checkpoints. Another participant in the noncompetitive “expedition” class, Canadian entrepreneur Steve Curtis, pledged $50,000 for youth sports programs in those villages; Curtis did not finish the race.
The race’s long-standing animal welfare debate resurfaced alongside the results. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has claimed that more than 150 dogs have died in the history of the Iditarod and urged Rokke to spend money helping dogs rather than subjecting them to “hazards and misery.” The Iditarod has said it has never provided its own count of dogs who have died in the race.
In this year’s race, the Iditarod reported that one dog died: Charly, a 4-year-old female on musher Mille Porsild’s team. The organization said a necropsy would be conducted. The field also remained comparatively small, with 34 competitive mushers starting, a number that matched the inaugural 1973 race for the second-fewest in the race’s history, as retirements and the high cost of supplies such as dog food have kept the number of teams down this decade.
Following the Iditarod, more from the story’s sources: Holmes, a carpenter by trade, has now raced in the Iditarod nine times, earning seven top 10 finishes and placing in the top five in each of the last five races. The reporting said he used money from “Life Below Zero” to buy better dogs and equipment and to purchase raw land near Denali National Park and Preserve.
Supporting context: Holmes’ win also followed a 2018 first Iditarod, when a reported seventh-place finish earned him rookie of the year honors.