Jessie Holmes wins Iditarod, surviving brutal cold for back-to-back titles
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Jessie Holmes refers to the Alaskan Huskies that pull his sled across ice and snow and through howling winds as "Team Can't Stop.''
It's hard to argue with the nickname.
Holmes and his sled dogs won the Iditarod on Tuesday, March 17 for the second year in a row, Holmes becoming only the sixth dog musher to achieve the feat in the 54-year history of the grueling race in Alaska. He is the first to win back-to-back titles since 2016, when Dallas Seavey won his third straight Iditarod.
The mushers competed for a purse of $650,000, with Holmes earning $80,000.
With Holmes at the helm of the sled, "Team Can't Stop'' completed the 1,000-mile Iditarod trail in nine days and around seven hours, according to the race time on Iditarod.com, in challenging conditions. Temperatures plunged as low as 40 degrees below zero and winds gusted as high as 50 mph during portions of a race that started in Willow and ended in Nome, according to Iditarod.com, the official website of the race, and other published reports.
"We’ve been enduring wind this whole race,'' Holmes said in an interview with KTUU Channel 2 TV as his sled dogs rested before the final run of the race. "We thrive in it. So if there’s a challenge, come the weather, we’re just going to push through it, seal the deal.''
Seal it, they did — with attrition.
Heading into the final run, Holmes said his team of 16 dogs was down to 12 dogs. Each year, dozens of dogs are dropped from the race for exhaustion, injury or illness.
Though not as treacherous as the annual sled dog race, Holmes, 43, navigated an unusual path to Iditarod glory.
He was raised in Alabama and left home at 18. He spent three years as a carpenter in Montana, then he headed for Alaska and eventually discovered sled dog racing.
In 2018, Holmes was Iditarod Rookie of the Year when he finished seventh. He became a fixture among the annual mushers and climbed the ranks. In 2022, he finished third, followed up by a fifth-place finish in 2023 and a third-place finish in 2024.
He and "Team Can't Stop'' prevailed in 2025, finishing the race in 10 days, 14 hours and 55 minutes, about three hours ahead of runner-up Matt Hall.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iditarod results: Jessie Holmes wins 54th event, back-to-back titles
