For the fifth year in a row, a man named Seavey has won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. And for the fourth time in those five years, that man is Dallas Seavey. Moments ago, Dallas Seavey and his team of six sled dogs pulled under the Burled Arch finish line in Nome and claimed the championship of Iditarod 44.
The 28-year-old musher from Willow, Alaska, made quick time through Iditarod’s final checkpoints over the past 24 hours. He was first into White Mountain at 9:48am Monday morning, departed at 5:48pm that evening, and made the run from White Mountain to Safety in a fleet-footed pace of less than six hours, passing through Safety at 11:40pm.
With his ’16 win (and after his previous wins in 2012, 2014, and 2015), the younger Seavey enters a small, elite class of mushers who have won the Iditarod four times. Only Lance Mackey, Jeff King, Susan Butcher, Doug Swingley, and Martin Buser can claim the same. Only one musher, Rick Swenson, has won the Iditarod more times than Dallas (with five wins in ’77, ’79, ’81, ’82, and ’91).
Congratulations to Dallas Seavey: your 2016 Iditarod champion.
