The 2022 Iditarod was the 50th running of the annual

dog sled race Sled dog racing (sometimes termed dog sled racing) is a winter dog sport most popular in the Arctic regions of the United States, Canada, Russia, Greenland and some European countries. It involves the timed competition of teams of sled dogs tha ...

. The competition began on March 5 with its ceremonial start in

Anchorage Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolita ...

. All

musher Mushing is a sport or transport method powered by dogs. It includes carting, pulka, dog scootering, sled dog racing, skijoring, freighting, and weight pulling. More specifically, it implies the use of one or more dogs to pull a sled, most common ...

s were required to be vaccinated for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. The race was won by Brent Sass, who finished on March 15 with a total race time of 8 days, 14 hours, 38 minutes, and 43 seconds. His 11-dog team was blown off the main route on the approach to Nome due to high winds and low visibility, but Sass recovered to maintain his lead. In second was Dallas Seavey, who was within 90 minutes of Sass. Seavey finished after 8 days, 15 hours, 46 minutes, 51 seconds. By the end of the race, 12 mushers had withdrawn, half of them at the White Mountain checkpoint. Hannah Lyrek was the first rookie to finish, in 19th place, in 10 days, 2 hours, 43 minutes, 12 seconds. Apayauq Reitan became the first openly transgender woman to be a musher in an Iditarod. Reitan finished in 37th place, the last to cross the finish line. This was her second Iditarod. She participated in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

before she transitioned. She became the third person to participate in the Iditarod and Yukon Quest as a rookie in the same year.

References

Iditarod

Iditarod The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod (), is an annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska in early March. It travels from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers and a team of between 12 and 16 dogs, of which at leas ...

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