Bob Hallinen/Anchorage Daily News/MCT via Getty Images
Bob Hallinen/Anchorage Daily News/MCT via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — When the 2018 Iditarod race commences in January, four-time champion musher Dallas Seavey will be a no-show.
That’s because the Iditarod Trail Committee on Monday revealed that Seavey was “Musher X,” whose dogs tested positive for the painkiller tramadol after this year’s race.
In a brutally honest 17-minute testimonial uploaded to YouTube, the 30-year-old repeatedly denied that he had given his dogs the drug, and said someone could have spiked his dogs’ food supply during the grueling 1,000-mile race.
“I believe this [drug] was given to my dogs maliciously,” he said.
Seavey’s surname is well known in the musher racing world. The Alaskan native is the son of three-time champion Mitch Seavey.
In the video, Dallas Seavey repeatedly condemned the Iditarod Trail Commitee’s board of directors for publicly assassinating his character, saying, “I have spent the last 10 years becoming the best musher I possibly can. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Two weeks after Iditarod officials announced that several racing dogs had tested positive for a banned drug, speculation had swirled over who was “Musher X.”
It’s the first time the famed Alaskan dog sledding race had gone public that a dog had tested positive for doping.
News that Seavey was “Musher X” came after an emergency meeting where 83 current and former competitors belonging to the Iditarod Official Finishers Club signed a statement calling on the board to name the tainted musher in question within 72 hours.
Seavey, in his video, said his team “had a drug test” and had attempted to work with race officials to “get the information out there.”
Instead, the top-ranked dog racer said he was duped. Seavey said he was caught off guard by the committee’s public declaration of the alleged dog doping, saying he thought race officials would address the issue by instituting certain fixes and tighter security.
“I believe that they had come to that conclusion that I had been cleared of all wrongdoing,” he said. “They were going to protect our food drops, they were going to have surveillance [added] at checkpoints.”
It’s unclear if any of these measures have been instituted.
“The Iditarod can try to run me over,” he said. “They can try to throw me under the bus. But I’m going to be honest with myself and they are going to find out I don’t fit under the bus.”
Seavey said he’s “never knowingly broken any race rules” and that when it comes to doping he’s “never given any banned substances to my dogs.”
The rules, which were updated this month, ban racers from using any kind of injectable, oral or topical drugs to mask injury or be “used to drive a dog or cause a dog to perform or attempt to perform beyond its natural ability.”
In terms of testing, mushers must submit their dogs’ urine or blood samples up to six hours after the team’s finish.
Mushers are required to protect the diet of their dogs from being tainted or they are “strictly liable for all positive tests for prohibited drugs and procedures of dogs in their team,” according to the rules.
Accused mushers could be forced to take a polygraph test and if anybody is found to sabotage another musher or their dogs, directly or indirectly, he or she “will be subject to discipline of disqualification and/or a ban,” the rules state.
Seavey said he is determined to sideline himself for good if that’s what it takes to get at the truth.
“I don’t care if I never race another dog race,” he said in the video. “I don’t care if I make another cent which is my life this sport.”
He continued, “I will not spend the rest of my life looking in the mirror knowing that I backed down when I did nothing wrong.”
Seavey acknowledged that his decision to release his video response was a direct violation of the race’s governing board.
“I fully expect that after this I will be banned from the Iditarod based on the gag rule,” he said, as he threw his hands up. “I have no choice though.”
So far, Seavey hasn’t been sanctioned because the board lacked the ability to prove intent, based on a statement it released.
Seavey took second place behind his 58-year-old father, Mitch, in this year’s race.
Chas St. George, an Iditarod spokesman, told The Associated Press that race officials “can’t rule anything out.”
Before naming Seavey, Iditarod officials said in a statement Monday that a drug testing team collected urine samples from four of the unnamed musher’s dogs in Nome, Alaska, six hours after the team completed the race.
The sealed dog urine samples were shuttled to a lab two days later, where they twice tested positive for tramadol, the statement said.
When Seavey learned he was under investigation for allegedly doping his dogs, he said he was on an overnight camping trip with his daughter Annie.
“I get the worst phone call of my life,” he said in the YouTube video.
He went on to say that tramadol, the drug in question, was one that “I personally have never administered.”
The sled racing champ said he did an audit with his team and kennel and found that he was clean.
“I know I’m supposed to say I accidentally gave this to my dogs, but I have to tell you there is less than a half-percent chance that that happened,” he said in the video.
Seavey said he was willing to be questioned with a polygraph machine and risk his livelihood for other racers.
“I tried to cooperate fully,” he noted. “I apologize to my fellow mushers that this race is about to hit a rough patch. I love the Iditarod … the board is not the Iditarod.”
ABC News has reached to Dallas and Mitch Seavey for comment. Officials from the Iditarod Trail Committee did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
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