After more than a year of turmoil for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the long-time executive director is out.
In a carefully worded, six-paragraph statement on Thursday, Mike Mills, the president of the board of the Iditarod Trail Committee – which has also undergone its own shakeup this year – announced that 61-year-old Stan Hooley “has accepted an opportunity that will take him out of Alaska for extended periods of time for several years.”
No one, including Hooley, was saying what kind of opportunity would pull him away from the job of head honcho for the self-proclaimed “Last Great Race” after more than 25 years at the helm.
Most of Alaska’s mainstream media was acting like the resignation happened in a vacuum.
KTVA.com – the “official TV station of the Iditarod – only hinted at the context with a reference to how “the overhaul at the Iditarod continues.”
No details were provided on what has happened since a wrongly dated press release announced the Iditarod was revising its rules to create a “strict liability” standard for doping.
The reason?
The musher in question was reportedly threatening to sue if sanctioned, and the Iditarod statement said its unnamed legal counsel had advised “that the ITC would likely not be able to prove intent” to break the race’s anti-doping rules.
“Because of the sensitivity of this matter, the ITC does not intend to disclose the name of the musher involved,” the race’s media statement added.
And with that sled-dog world promptly exploded.
Suspects everywhere
Iditarod’s statement spawned the predictable response, a state full of Iditarod fans wanting to know who the guilty party and a flurry of rumors in response to that desire, some with interesting twists.
Three-time Iditarod champ Mitch Seavey from Sterling jumped in quickly to suggest that race had been sabotaged. In a Facebook post in which Seavey declared he wasn’t the doper, he argued that given the “unlikely” possibility anyone would dope dogs in an effort to win the world’s most prestigious sled dog race, “it seems more plausible an adversary of that musher or of the race itself was to blame.”
Only days later, it would be revealed the musher with the doped team was Dallas Seavey, Mitch’s son. In between those two events, the International Federation of Sleddog Sports (IFSS), the sport’s world-governing body, distanced itself from the Iditarod; a mysterious “Musher X” emerged; and the Iditarod Trail Official Finisher’s Club, a group open only to the small number of people who’ve made it 1,000 miles from Anchorage to Nome behind a dog team, went on the war path.
Musher X, who appeared to have a very cozy relationship with the state’s largest newspaper, turned out to be Dallas, who launched a full-on attack on Iditarod after it was finally revealed the four dogs in his team tested for drugs turned out be on tramadol, a synthetic opioid. Statistics suggested the four-of-four tested made it highly likely all the dogs were doped.
“In Nome, he told Thompson, “our crew and that vet were working closely together ’cause (the dogs) seemed down. And um, this, this was something that when this whole thing came up, it’s like:
“‘Oh, now I see what was going on. They were hit with a heavy sedative.'”
He later changed that story to say the dogs were doped in the Nome dog lot.
The “most likely” scenario, he told Alaska Dispatch News reporter Tegan Hanlon in a videotaped interview, was that “somebody had this drug, and was standing there, and the dog yard is vacant at 10:30-11 at night in Nome. There’s not a soul around, and took the opportunity.”
Hanlon was the reporter who’d earlier published “Musher X’s” claim that the “investigation cleared the musher in question, no musher should be considered guilty of anything, and any speculation is strictly conjecture.”
Divisions
Once considered the face of the Iditarod of tomorrow and the only musher with a chance of breaking the legendary Rick Swenson’s record of five wins, the 30-year-old Dallas had by then walked away from Iditarod in protest and headed to Norway to run the Finnsmakslopett.
He has yet to return, although the Iditarod has seen a lot of change in a year.
Morrie Craig, an authority on canine and equine doping, was asked to leave as head of the race’s drug-testing program and resigned in June. The entire drug-testing program now appears on the verge of being phased out.
Some involved with the program in the past say Chas St. George, Hooley’s former number two, has been trying to cobble together some sort of doping control, but having problems in that many of those who worked with Craig in the past say they’ve had enough.
Among those gone were former board president Andy Baker, the brother of past Iditarod champ John Baker from Kotzebue, and Swenson, who Dallas hinted had leaked his name as the doper. The suggestion was that Swenson did it to keep the younger Seavey from joining Swenson as the sole five-time champ.
There was no evidence to support the accusation.
The new board members include two women, a rare gender on the Iditarod board in the past. One, Karen King, runs a succesful advertising agency. The other, Nina Kemppel, is a native of Anchorage who skied for the U.S. Olympic Nordic team and returned home after her skiing career ended to be become a community activist as chief executive officer for the Alaska Community Foundation.
About five months after the new board was seated, it apologized to Dallas and asked him to return to the race.
“After several meetings with Dallas Seavey, and review of all relevant information and evidence, the board does not believe that Dallas had any involvement with, or knowledge of, the events that led to the positive test in his team,” Iditarod said in another carefully worded statement at that time. “The ITC concludes that it is not credible that Dallas was involved, and he is found to have committed no wrong doing. Whatever happened was completely beyond his control.”
The statement offered no hint of who the Iditarod thought might have doped Dallas’s dogs if he didn’t do it. The statement praised the younger Seavey as “a top competitor and valued ambassador for the sport” and said Iditarod “looks forward to seeing him participate in future Iditarods.”
“On behalf of the ITC, I apologize to Dallas for any negative publicity and damages this situation has caused him,” Mills said in the statement.
The doping case remains unsolved. The Iditarod says it has upgraded checkpoint security to watch for saboteurs. No saboteurs have emerged to claim credit. The dogs were not harmed. Tramadol is mild pain killer well known to most mushers and many other dog owners.
Until a federal crackdown on opioids in 2014, some veterinarians pretty much handed it out like canine aspirin. The drug remains widely available in Europe where it is regularly used by long-distance, competitive cyclists.
“The use of tramadol to mask the pain of intense efforts in races has been on the radar of the Movement for Creditable Cycling (MPCC) for more than five years. The group has been calling on World Anti-Doping Administration (WADA) to ban its use in competition,” Cycling News reported this summer.
Iditarod has said the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) is rare in the race, but more than a dozen mushers have now told craigmedred.news many recognized PEDs are used and abused regularly in training.
St. George is serving as the race’s interim CEO, but he has plans to leave next summer.
Going, going…
The race will start in March this year with the smallest field in 22 years.
No one is blaming Hooley – at least not publicly – but there are those who have been saying for some time that the race needs new blood.
“Change is good and long overdue,” Julie St. Louis said Friday. As the adminstrator of the August Fund, an non-profit organization that helps find retirement homes for Alaska racing sled dogs, St. Louis has had a long association with Iditarod.
“The Iditarod as an organization has been stagnating in the hands of what seemed to be more of a good-old- boys club that had become too comfortable using the same play book year after year to conduct business,” she said.
“Every year for the last many that I’ve been here there’s been an issue – dog deaths, rule infractions, incidents on the trail – and each time it’s the same reactive, closed-off response, rather than taking real steps to make meaningful changes.”
She was optimistic that new board could bring new ideas into play to keep the Iditarod relevant in a world that daily slips deeper into the online world and moves farther from the outdoor world.
“There’s a broader skill set and diversity in board members now and it seems fitting that they select new leadership at the headquarters who can bring fresh ideas and be forward thinking as well,” she said.
Correction: Nina Kemppel’s name was misspelled in an early version of this story.
Categories: News
Craig, I think you bring up a good but obvious point “keep the Iditarod relevant in a world that daily slips deeper into the online world and moves farther from the outdoor world.”
I feel the main culprit is the younger generation country-wide finds itself spending more time on the couch buried in their cellphones. Outdoor traditions such as the Iditarod, hiking, biking, hunting, to learning to change a tire are going by the wayside. I’d hate to see 35yrs from now this younger generations health problems.
Keep draining the Iditarod good ole boy swamp. Get ride of race marshall Mark Nordman next.
Let’s not forget that it is almost January and the “Big Su” is a wet mess…long stretches of “over-flow” in between long stretches of “open – water”.
Folks can debate the causes of our warming climate, but data, research and observations prove Alaskans will be forced to adapt their ways in years to come.
This time of year the rivers were normally full of Irod mushers training for the race.
Where will the course go this year?
As for Stan jumping ship, we all know their is NO way the ITC can continue to pay his “six figure” salary in the face of losing nearly $250 K in sponsorships….deficits plague their budget left and right.
When Craig said:
“Iditarod has said the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) is rare in the race, but more than a dozen mushers have now told craigmedred.news many recognized PEDs are used and abused regularly in training.”
I thought, this explains why an “Olympian” was placed on the ITC board….lots of experience in turning a “blind eye” to PED’s….
That is why the Russians could not be banned from the Olympic Games after getting caught red handed with doping and switching urine.
“Icarus” the movie proved that almost ALL of international athletes in Olympic history are on PED’s…except maybe the Jamaican bob sled team!
No coincidence that only 4 of Dallas’s dogs were drug tested and all 4 turned up positive for Tramadol.
Sorry Craig, got off track, concerning your article. Had to rant a little. Thanks for letting me, blow it out. I will feel better in the am!
This whole Trump thing, is upsetting my balance!
BTW, corporate capitalism, only rewards 1% of US population. So, go ahead and defend all of your BS, since the majority of blue collar Alaskans, this whole thing sucks. LNG, what a joke! The world is awash in cheap oil and gas.
If you want to build a gas pipeline, to generate electricity in the Mat Su, then that is something else. Forget everything, Help Alaskans, achieve their goals and dreams. Give them cheap gas, to fuel their homes.
In the real world, the oil companies, have a lot of lobbyists in Juneau, for a specific reason. To help them! Duh! The big 7, do not actually care about AK, they only answer to their shareholders, that is called corporate capitalism. Thank you!
James,
Those Palmer hay flats sure are windy…
A handful of modern wind turbines could power the whole valley and create a few needed jobs.
As the Arctic thaws, we can export that LNG from Beaufort Sea and increase the GDP as well.
Win – Win for all involved.
Maybe the state should spend some of that PF and build a state owned Ice Breaker?
Would be a valuable asset if we ever had to respond to oil well leaks in the Beaufort as well and no communist partners are needed like the pipeline proposal.
Wind turbines along and through a marsh that Tens of Thousands of migrating birds use each & Every year is a Horrifying idea. As for this move glad Stan Hooley is gone only because the race simply can NOT afford paying one of its Exec’s over a hundred K a year yet those mushers who invest their Lives into their dogs & this race get chicken scratch by comparison.But sadly I see that the New Board is one that has likely been chosen By Mitch & Dallas For Mitch & Dallas. It’s only a matter of time before Dallas signs up for this years race to Save the Day & once more restore Credibility to this Iditarod-What would we Ever do Without them……
Well Puckster,
If you do not like that location, I am sure there is a suitable location along the “Interconnection” somewhere between Wasilla and Fairbanks.
Remember electricity rates are almost double what they are in the L48 up here.
If no new renewable sources are added to the grid, then the rates will stay high for gas exploration, drilling, pipes, etc. all cost a lot to the consumer in the end.
“Because the transmission networks in Alaska are isolated from other interconnections in North America, average rates for electricity are $0.18 per kWh – the second highest price in the United States after Hawaii, whose average residential rate is $0.37 per kWh.[5] In contrast, the average rate for electricity in the 48 contiguous states is $0.10 per kWh.”
Wikipedia
Oil has lost 40% of it’s gobal value in last two months. Wow! And this is still AK’s main revenue producer?
Drill baby drill! is no longer the mantra, it once was. Are we able to quit statehood, and go back being a territory?
Can we ask Donald, to bail us out?
Good luck Mike D., you are going to need it.
Burt, suggested laying off 50% of State employees, I guess they can go back to whatever state they originated from.
Actually, in reality, we are the original interlopers. White Anglo Saxon Protestant, once the encroachers, will become a minority, by 2025, if not sooner.
The last gasp, of the old white guys, trying to run everything. Guess what? It does not work. New generation, new ideas and a new way of doing business. I am ready for the change. Let er rip!
Wow! James where to begin with your racist screed. “White Anglo Saxon Protestant, once the encroachers, will become a minority, by 2025, if not sooner.
The last gasp, of the old white guys, trying to run everything.”
Maybe you could recommend economic guidance from one of our flourishing Central or South American “partners”? How about one of those technologically advanced countries in Africa – like South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, or the Ivory Coast? How about the Middle East or poor, poor China? How about Houston, Atlanta, Detroit? Oil goes up, oil goes down… THERE ARE ONLY 700,000 people in the whole damn state. How many damn welfare checks do you need?
I say the first thing you should do today is go out and kiss the first white mans arse you see.
James, (12/21/2018) Corporations are infusing money back to the U.S. from abroad in record numbers for the third quarter since passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to the tune of $92.7 billion dollars.
Third quarter 2018 saw the fifth highest U.S. corporate repatriations, listed as dividends from foreign operations, in recorded U.S. history, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers. The first and second highest were in the first and second quarters of 2018. Total corporate repatriation in the first three months of 2018 hit over $571 billion dollars.
Bryan,
Maybe you should cite where you “cut and paste” these rants from?
Quotation marks would also help as well:)
Sorry Steve, younare correct. My mistake.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/12/20/historic-cash-flows-returning-to-the-us-for-3rd-quarter-in-a-row-after-tax-act/
What happened to all of our oil money, since late ‘70s? Spent on worthless projects, around the state. Mostly “white guys”, made those financial decisions. BTW, I am of Norwegian/English descent. Born in Tacoma and raised in Seattle. Arrived in Alaska at age 19.
James, does that make you any less of a racist with your comments? Also, maybe take a moment and dwell on the innovation amd accomishments in eveey facet of your life by those “white guys”.
Edit; The other, Nina Kempel, is a native of Anchorage who skied for the U.S. Olympic Nordic team and returned home after “his” skiing career
His to her.