Iditapod bonus: Talkeetna interview with Dallas Seavey

Alaska Public Media | By Casey Grove

Published March 11, 2021 at 8:16 PM AKST

a dog lunges onto a person in a blue jacket — Musher Dallas Seavey is returning to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race this year. The four-time champion's success streak came to an abrupt halt in 2017 when race officials announced that several of his dogs tested positive for a prohibited pain reliever. Seavey says he did not give the drug to his dogs, and the race cleared him of any wrongdoing in 2018. Seavey now lives on a vast property in Talkeetna with more than 100 sled dogs. He says he's coming back to the Iditarod with a new perspective after wading through some of the biggest challenges of his life. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)

Alaska Public Media's Tegan Hanlon talks with four-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey in February in the dog lot at his Talkeetna-based kennel. Seavey is back in the Iditarod this year after taking three years off following a scandal in 2017's race, after which the Iditarod said two of Seavey's dogs had tested positive for a banned pain-reliever, then later cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Iditapod

Casey Grove

Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org.

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