UPDATE, 1 p.m. Friday: The two mushers who shared Gunnar Johnson’s tent in Nikolai had not been identified as of noon Friday, race officials said. Additionally, COVID-19 testing is being added to two more checkpoints on the return route Rainy Pass and Skwentna. In-bound mushers will also be tested in McGrath.
Original story: Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race officials are trying to identify two mushers who shared a tent at a checkpoint with Gunnar Johnson, the Minnesota musher who was pulled from the race this week after testing positive for COVID-19. Johnson, 52, tested positive Wednesday in McGrath, a town 300 miles into the race where every musher is being tested on their northbound journey. He shared a tent in Nikolai with two mushers the previous night.
Duluthian Gunnar Johnson was racing in the Iditarod in Alaska when he was yanked from the race due to testing positive for COVID.
The Pioneer Press is reporting that Gunnar Johnson, of Duluth, had to withdraw at the McGrath, Alaska, checkpoint, because of a positive COVID test. Friends of Gunner were reporting on his Facebook page that he was doing well, and after he was withdrawn, he made a comment that his dogs looked good and he was feeling optimistic. He had to send a backup in his place to finish the race.
The Pioneer Press said Iditarod Race Marshal Mark Nordman, working with epidemiologist Dr. Jodie Guest, said he was asymptomatic and according to the COVID-19 protocol set in place by the race officials, Johnson had to be removed from the race.
As the Iditarod prepares to shift into reverse, mushers dread what’s ahead
Wait 1 second to continue. OPHIR Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race mushers are contending with an unprecedented situation this year, one that is stirring anxiety as racers ruminated during their 24-hour mandatory rests on Wednesday. For the first time, the Iditarod is following an out-and-back route. That means competitors now have a clear idea what’s in store when they go back over daunting sections of trail. “On a normal year, you just go and you hit a bad spot, and you’re through it and you just forget about it,” said race veteran Paige Drobny of Cantwell, wearing a billowy white jacket as she inspected the inside of a dog’s nostril.
As the leader of the Iditarod pack in McGrath, Seavey draws a lot of attention but his focus stays on his dogs Published March 9
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Print article McGRATH Dallas Seavey pulled off the Kuskokwim River and into the checkpoint here at exactly 4 p.m. Tuesday. For the next hour and a half, he methodically worked through an elaborate set of essential chores with the kind of focus that he’s hoping will win him a fifth Iditarod title. It began with a swab jabbed up his nose by a stranger, a mandatory COVID-19 testing precaution for every musher coming into McGrath. Even with a foreign object swirling halfway up his nasal cavity, cameras and questions hovered around him like mosquitoes in June.