The 2023 Iditarod was the 51st edition of the
Iditarod, an annual
sled dog race in the U.S. state of
Alaska. It began on March 4, 2023, with a ceremonial start in
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...
.
The official race began the following day in
Willow, Alaska, and ended 9 to 10 days later in
Nome, Alaska
Nome (; ik, Sitŋasuaq, ) is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of Alaska, United States. The city is located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. It had a population of 3,699 recorded ...
.
It used the southern route of the
Iditarod Trail for the first time since the
2019 edition.
The 2023 race had 33 mushers, the smallest field of competitors in its history; the decline in participants was attributed to financial issues following the
COVID-19 pandemic and an
ongoing inflation surge.
The field included reigning champion
Brent Sass
Brent Sass (born January 2, 1980, in Excelsior, Minnesota) is an American dog musher who is one of only six people to have won both the Iditarod and Yukon Quest sled dog races.
The Yukon Quest is a 1,000 mile international sled dog race from ...
and 2019 champion
Peter Kaiser.
, the grandson of Iditarod Race co-founder
Joe Redington
Joe Redington, Senior (February 1, 1917 – June 24, 1999) was an American dog musher and kennel owner, who is best known as the "Father of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race", a long distance sled dog race run annually from the Anchorage area t ...
, won for the first time with a time of 8 days, 21 hours, 12 minutes, and 58 seconds. A total of 29 teams finished the race—the last arrived on March 17 to earn the Red Lantern award.
References
Iditarod
Iditarod
Iditarod
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