50th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race makes official start

Reuters Videos
2 年前

STORY: After the snowy ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage Saturday, teams packed up and drove 75 miles north to the small town of Willow where they took their official timed starts on an event that takes about nine days for the winning team to complete.

This year's overall trail has been restored to its traditional 1,000-mile (1,600-km) distance from Anchorage to the Bering Sea gold-rush town of Nome after a COVID-forced shortening of the course last year, a number of pandemic restrictions remain in effect.

The pandemic also forced one last-minute switch. Nic Petit, a top musher, had to pull out of the race after testing positive for COVID-19. Four-time champion Jeff King, who had planned to sit out this year's contest, then stepped in to drive Petit’s dog team to Nome.

Seventeen women are competing in this year's Iditarod, one of the world's few high-profile sports events in which women and men compete on an equal footing.