Former Iditarod Champ Dallas Seavey Revealed As Musher With Doping Dogs, Claims Someone Drugged Them "Maliciously"

Ready for some juicy sled dog racing drama featuring drugs, father-son competition, and accusations of malicious behavior???? Here you go!!

The Iditarod Trail Committee today revealed four-time champion Dallas Seavey as the musher behind four dogs who tested positive for illegal opioids during this year’s race. (Seavey came in second place behind ... his dad, Mitch Seavey, who beat him by nearly three hours to become both the oldest and fastest winner in race history.) While the younger Seavey will not be punished—under the rules that were in effect at the time of the race, a musher cannot be punished for doping if intent cannot be proven—he announced his intent to withdraw from next year’s Iditarod in protest over how the drug results have been handled.

Seavey shared his side of the story in a 17-minute video posted today, in which he maintains his innocence and warns Iditarod officials that he’s not interested in backing down:

“I don’t care if I ever race another dog race. I don’t care if I never make another cent, which is my life, around this sport. I will not spend the rest of my life looking in the mirror knowing that I backed down when I did nothing wrong. The Iditarod can try to run me over. They can try to throw me under the bus. But I’m going to be honest to myself and they’re going to find out that I don’t fit under the bus.”

He noted that he would have had “to be completely ignorant” about the drug and the race’s drug-testing process to believe that he could get away with purposefully giving his dogs such a dosage. Instead, he believes that someone else gave his dogs the opioid “maliciously.”

[ Alaska Daily News]