NOME – Defending Iditarod champion Jessie Holmes and his perky team of sled dogs made a brisk run down Front Street about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday to deliver the 44-year-old musher his second title in as many years.
From Brushkana Creek off the Denali Highway, Holmes is the first repeat champion the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has seen in a decade. He is the sixth musher to win the race consecutively since it started in 1973 and did so on two different courses: a 1,130-mile reroute out of Fairbanks due to a lack of snow in 2025 and the normal 1,000-mile northern route out of Willow in 2026.
Iditarod fans cheered and celebrated the race and St. Patrick’s Day as the temperature dipped below zero and police vehicles escorted the 12-dog team – led by Zeus and Polar – down Front Street to the Burled Arch finish line.
Holmes, wearing what he called the "lucky number seven" bib, pumped his arms in the air and gave high-fives.
"Dogs first, man, dogs first," Holmes said in the finish chute. "They deserve all the glory."
Holmes fed his team ribeye steaks after a short interview on the public address system.
Team Can’t Stop completed the race in 9 days, 7 hours and 32 minutes, having led most of the way after starting in Willow on March 8. That’s more than a full day faster than in 2025 on the trail from Fairbanks, which was the longest in Iditarod history.
Holmes is known for having a happy, healthy team at the end of the Iditarod.
On the run early Tuesday to White Mountain, where mushers take a mandatory eight-hour break before the final 77-mile push to Nome, Holmes gave his team extra snacks and rubbed frost off their snouts, giving love and attention to each dog.
Holmes told Iditarod Insider he’s learned a lot since he first ran the race. This Iditarod, like the others before, is an investment in his team and their future races, he said.
“I invest back into the dogs constantly with rest and food, and it perpetuates power, which perpetuates speed,” Holmes said. “If you ain’t got power, you ain’t got speed, and you aren’t going to be able to race.”
The dogs had “gas in the tank” to make a move and race other teams, if needed, Holmes said. But, in the end, they were able to take their time in the final stretches to Nome.
This is Holmes’ ninth Iditarod. He placed in the top 10 all but two years and won Rookie of the Year in 2018. Originally from Alabama, he was featured on the reality show “Life Below Zero.”
At the finish line, Holmes said he had mushed in to Nome thinking about the late Iditarod greats Susan Butcher and Lance Mackey, who, along with Doug Swingley and Dallas Seavey, have won three consecutive championships.
Holmes was asked if he’d be seeking a three-peat, with the race set to run its southern route in 2027.
“That’s what we’re going to be shooting for,” he said. “And we're going to be shooting to break that southern route record, because that's our favorite route. We can't wait.”
While the weather was nice Tuesday night by Nome standards, teams contended with strong wind along the trail earlier in the race, with windchill plummeting to 45 below.
Holmes and veteran Paige Drobny, his friend and neighbor on the Denali Highway, jockeyed up the Yukon River. At one point, it looked like she would challenge him for first place, but Drobny’s team was running in fourth position when Holmes arrived in Nome.
Travis Beals passed Drobny while she took a six-hour rest in Shaktoolik.
Out of White Mountain earlier Tuesday, Holmes had a nearly four-hour lead over Beals, a veteran Iditarod musher from Seward who finished sixth each of the last two years. He was named the Most Improved Musher in 2015.
At a press conference after winning the race Tuesday night, Holmes received a standing ovation and said he hoped his win would inspire others to chase dreams that might seem unachievable.
“What means to me the most is that I can use my story to inspire others,” he said. “It doesn't matter where you start, it matters where you finish. Never lose hope and always keep pushing forward.”
The 2026 race field was its second smallest in history with 34 competitive mushers. Four had dropped out of the race as of Tuesday night, including veteran Mille Porsild, whose four-year-old dog Charley died outside the village checkpoint of Elim, according to the Iditarod.
Noncompetitive Expedition Class mushers Thomas Waerner and Steve Curtis ended their runs Sunday in Unalakleet and McGrath, respectively. Norwegian billionaire Kjell Røkke, the third Expedition musher, arrived in Nome on Monday with help from a crew on snowmachines.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
