Fastest Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Winners of All Time

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is a 1,000-mile trek across Alaska that tests the human spirit and makes legends out of the winners.

The most famous sled dog race in the world occurs in the first few days of March every year in Alaska when the best competitors from around the world brave the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a 1,000-mile trek across the state that is a true test of the human spirit.

With the Iditarod hosting its gala 50th anniversary race in 2022, the history of the race reflects the history of the state itself. Teams of dogs and racers battle through the elements, traveling through blizzards and whiteout conditions, braving rivers and mountain passes, navigating through sprawling forests in temperatures that can dip to -100 degrees with wind chill.

In honor of the historic upcoming race, these are the fastest times in Iditarod history — a who’s who of some of the greatest champions in race history.

30. Martin Buser, 1992

Mark Thiessen / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 10 days, 19 hours, 17 minutes, 15 seconds

Hometown: Winterthur, Switzerland

Bottom line: Swiss sled dog racer Martin Buser moved to Big Lake, Alaska, in 1979 to race and train dogs. He came through with his first Iditarod victory in 1992 after entering the race for the first time in 1980, a few years after the first Iditarod in 1973.

Buser broke the previous record set by four-time champion Susan Butcher in 1990. It was the first of four career Iditarod victories for Buser, and he claimed a winner’s purse of $51,600.

29. Jeff King, 1993

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Iditarod time: 10 days, 15 hours, 38 minutes, 15 seconds

Hometown: North Fork, California

Bottom line: Jeff King was born in California but moved to Alaska in 1975, when he was 19 years old, and began dog sled racing the next year.

It was a decade until King won his first major race at the 1989 Yukon Quest. He won his first Iditarod in 1993, when he brought home $50,000 from the winner’s purse.

King also brought home a win at the Kuskokwim 300 in 1993.

28. Martin Buser, 1994

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Iditarod time: 10 days, 13 hours, 5 minutes, 39 seconds

Hometown: Winterthur, Switzerland

Bottom line: Martin Buser won his second Iditarod in 1994. It was also the second victory in three years for the Swiss transplant to Big Lake, Alaska, where he runs Happy Trail Kennels.

Buser, who began dog sled racing as a teenager in the mid-1970s, also won the prestigious Kuskokwim 300 in 1994 — also known as the Kusko 300.

But his career hasn’t been without controversy. He was caught taking shortcuts at the 2016 Kusko 300 and penalized with a last-place finish.

27. Doug Swingley, 1995

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Iditarod time: 10 days, 13 hours, 2 minutes, 39 seconds

Hometown: Great Falls, Montana

Bottom line: Montana native Doug Swingley posted one of the more memorable wins in Iditarod history in 1995, becoming the first dog sled racer from outside of Alaska to win it all.

Swingley cashed in $52,500 with lead dogs Vic and Elmer after 10 1/2 days on the trail.

Swingley remains the only Iditarod winner to come from the “Lower 48” states — aka what people in Alaska call everything but Hawaii.

26. Lance Mackey, 2009

Al Grillo / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 9 days, 21 hours, 38 minutes, 46 seconds

Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska

Bottom line: This was the third consecutive Iditarod win for Lance Mackey, who comes from a legendary family of dog sled racers.

Lance Mackey’s father, Dick Mackey, was one of the founders of the Iditarod and won the closest race in history when he beat five-time champion Rick Swenson by one second in 1978. Lance Mackey’s half-brother, Rick Mackey, won the Iditarod in 1983.

One quirky piece of Iditarod trivia. All three of the Mackeys won the Iditarod on their sixth attempt, and all three did it wearing the No. 13 bib.

25. Doug Swingley, 2001

The_Iditarod / Twitter

Iditarod time: 9 days, 19 hours, 55 minutes, 50 seconds

Hometown: Great Falls, Montana

Bottom line: This was the fourth and final Iditarod victory in Doug Swingley’s career, and he cashed in with a winner’s purse of approximately $62,000 behind lead dogs Stormy and Peppy.

Swingley only raced in the Iditarod 15 times in his career with two scratches, meaning he won the Iditarod more than a quarter of the times he entered the race.

In his career, Swingley cashed out approximately $500,000 in Iditarod winnings.

24. Robert Sorlie, 2005

The_Iditarod / Twitter

Iditarod time: 9 days, 18 hours, 39 minutes, 30 seconds

Hometown: Hurdal, Norway

Bottom line: Norwegian dog sled racer Robert Sorlie won his second Iditarod in three years and cashed out a whopping $72,000 in prize money with lead dogs Sox and Blue.

This was one of the tighter Iditarods in recent memory, with Sorlie battling against a field that included five former Iditarod winners and winning the race by just 34 minutes.

23. Robert Sorlie, 2003

Mark Thiessen / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 9 days, 15 hours, 47 minutes, 36 seconds

Hometown: Hurdal, Norway

Bottom line: Norway’s Robert Sorlie turned the Iditarod on its head when he became the first dog sled racer from a foreign country to win the race. Martin Buser was the first non-American to win the race, but Sorlie was the first true foreigner, as Buser moved to Big Lake, Alaska, in 1979.

Sorlie actually won the Iditarod in only his second attempt. He finished in ninth place in 2002 and brought home Iditarod Rookie of the Year honors.

Sorlie began his career as a dog sled racer in the 1970s and won Finnmarkslopet, Europe’s longest dog sled race, three times before heading to Alaska to take on the Iditarod.

22. Doug Swingley, 1999

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Iditarod time: 9 days, 14 hours, 31 minutes, 7 seconds

Hometown: Great Falls, Montana

Bottom line: Montana native Doug Swingley picked up his second Iditarod victory in 1999, but the Montana native cut his teeth on other races leading up to dominating against the best dog sled competition in the world.

Swingley won the Montana Race to the Sky in 1991 before racing in the Iditarod for the first time in 1992, when he won the Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award for being the first team to hit the halfway point of the race.

21. Peter Kaiser, 2019

Rachel D’Oro / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 9 days, 12 hours, 39 minutes, 6 seconds

Hometown: Bethel, Alaska

Bottom line: Peter Kaiser continued the tradition of dog sled racers from native Alaskan tribes winning the Iditarod, becoming the fifth such racer to do so.

Kaiser was the first from central Alaska’s Yup’ik tribe to win the race. Kaiser has six top 10 finishes in the Iditarod in his career.

He finished eighth in 2011 and fifth in 2012 before his victory in 2019.

20. Mitch Seavey, 2004

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Iditarod time: 9 days, 12 hours, 20 minutes, 22 seconds

Hometown: Seward, Alaska

Bottom line: Mitch Seavey wasn’t the first person in his family to compete in the Iditarod. His father, Dan, competed in the race in the 1970s.

Mitch Seavey’s first win at the Iditarod in 2004 was a study in determination. He raced in the Iditarod for the first time in 1982 and began a current run of 26 consecutive races beginning in 1995, when he started the race in Seward and completed the entire trek.

Seavey and his family run Ididaride Sled Dog Tours in Sterling, Alaska, which gives normal people the opportunity to feel what it’s like to be a sled dog racer.

19. Joar Leifseth Ulsom, 2018

Diana Haecker / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 9 days, 12 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds

Hometown: Mo i Rana, Norway

Bottom line: Another dog sled racer from the far reaches of Norway won the Iditarod in 2018, when Joar Leifseth Ulsom became the second Norwegian to win the race.

Ulsom was raised in the perfect setting to become an Iditarod champion, just south of the Arctic Circle in the remote town of Mo i Rana, where the weather is almost identical to Alaska, with long, cold winters and short summers.

Ulsom moved to Alaska full-time in 2011, then raced in his first Iditarod in 2012. He’s finished in the top 10 all nine times he’s run the race.

18. Lance Mackey, 2008

Al Grillo / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 9 days, 11 hours, 46 minutes, 48 seconds

Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska

Bottom line: Lance Mackey’s second consecutive Iditarod victory cashed out at $69,000, a far cry from the $12,000 his father, Dick Mackey, brought home when he won the race in 1978.

While hailing from Anchorage, Mackey’s business interests have been in Fairbanks, where he has a five-acre piece of land he runs Comeback Kennels on. It’s a business that’s come under scrutiny because of his use of CBD on some of the racing dogs to get them to heal faster.

It’s a practice that PETA has issued several public statements on, reprimanding Mackey.

17. Jeff King, 2006

The_Iditarod / Twitter

Iditarod time: 9 days, 11 hours, 11 minutes, 36 seconds

Hometown: North Fork, California

Bottom line: Jeff King set the record as the oldest Iditarod winner in 2006, at 50 years old, although the record has been broken several times since.

It was King’s fourth and final Iditarod victory following three wins in the 1990s. For winning in 2006, King brought home $69,000 in prize money.

He made $50,000 off his first Iditarod win in 1993.

16. Thomas Waerner, 2020

marclesterphoto / Twitter

Iditarod time: 9 days, 10 hours, 37 minutes, 47 seconds

Hometown: Torpa, Norway

Bottom line: Like fellow Norwegian dog sled racer Robert Sorlie before him, Thomas Waerner won Europe’s longest dog sled race, Finnmarkslopet, before coming to Alaska to win the Iditarod.

Waerner, who hails from Torpa, Norway, won Finnmarkslopet in 2019, then snuck in a win at the Iditarod in March 2020, just a few weeks before the pandemic shut down most of the world and the 2020 Finnmarkslopet was canceled.

“For me, the Iditarod is the ultimate test,” Waerner said.

15. Martin Buser, 1997

The_Iditarod / Twitter

Iditarod time: 9 days, 8 hours, 30 minutes, 45 seconds

Hometown: Winterthur, Switzerland

Bottom line: Martin Buser may have been born in Switzerland, but he was treated as a native son of Alaska by the time he won his third Iditarod championship in 1997. He’d lived in Big Lake, Alaska, since the late 1970s.

Buser has a record for dog sled racers as well. Through 2017, he completed 39 consecutive races without a scratch.

He was also named Yukon Quest Rookie of the Year in 2009, when he finished in fourth place.

14. Mitch Seavey, 2013

Mary Pemberton / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 9 days, 7 hours, 39 minutes, 56 seconds

Hometown: Seward, Alaska

Bottom line: At 53 years old, Mitch Seavey set the record as the oldest person to win the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in 2013. Spoiler alert — he broke the record a few years later.

Seavey’s career hasn’t just been about the Iditarod, even if that is the crown jewel. He’s also won the Klondike 300, Kusko 300, Copper Basin 300 twice, the Grand Portage Passage in Minnesota, and set the record at the All Alaska Sweepstakes with a time of 64 hours, 29 minutes and 45 seconds.

13. Jeff King, 1998

The_Iditarod / Twitter

Iditarod time: 9 days, 5 hours, 52 minutes, 26 seconds

Hometown: North Fork, California

Bottom line: This was the third of four Iditarod wins in Jeff King’s career, bringing home $51,000 for taking first place.

King’s career earnings off the Iditarod alone are something to behold. King raced in his first Iditarod in 1981 and raced in the Iditarod 29 times in his career, finishing in the top 10 20 times and raking in approximately $970,000.

Beginning in 1992, King finished in the top 10 in 13 consecutive Iditarods.

12. Jeff King, 1996

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Iditarod time: 9 days, 5 hours, 43 minutes, 13 seconds

Hometown: North Fork, California

Bottom line: Jeff King’s second Iditarod victory in 1996 was also his fastest, bringing home $50,000 from the winner’s purse for the win.

While King’s four Iditarods put him in the rarest of air when it comes to dog sled racing, it wasn’t the only race where King came out on top.

He also won the prestigious Kuskokwim 300 a whopping nine times, won the Copper Basin 300 twice and the Tustumena 300 three times.

11. Lance Mackey, 2007

The_Iditarod / Twitter

Iditarod time: 9 days, 5 hours, 8 minutes, 41 seconds

Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska

Bottom line: Lance Mackey made history in 2007, when he became the first dog sled racer to win the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in the same year.

It would be the first of four consecutive Iditarod wins for Mackey, who became the first dog sled racer in Iditarod history to win the race four years in a row.

Doug Swingley and Susan Butcher previously won the race three times in a row but failed in the attempt at a fourth straight win.

10. Dallas Seavey, 2012

AP Photo

Iditarod time: 9 days, 4 hours, 29 minutes, 26 seconds

Hometown: Seward, Alaska

Bottom line: Dallas Seavey became the youngest Iditarod winner in history in 2012 at 25 years old — a third-generation Iditarod racer following his grandfather, Dan, and his father, three-time Iditarod champion MItch Seavey.

While Dallas Seavey picked up his first Iditarod win in 2012, it was hardly his first time making history in the race. He became the youngest racer in Iditarod history in 2005, running his father’s “puppy” team at 18 years old.

9. Doug Swingley, 2000

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Iditarod time: 9 days, 0 hours, 58 minutes, 6 seconds

Hometown: Great Falls, Montana

Bottom line: Doug Swingley’s fastest Iditarod victory came in 2000 — his third time winning the race and part of a stretch of three consecutive wins from 1999 to 2001.

Swingley was severely injured in the 2004 Iditarod with a severe case of frostbite in his eyes that almost cost him his vision. After the injury to his eyes, Swingley finished 14th in 2005.

He was leading almost 500 miles into the 2006 race before a mandatory 24-hour layover and trouble navigating the stretch of the race along the Bering Sea killed his hopes.

8. Lance Mackey, 2010

The_Iditarod / Twitter

Iditarod time: 8 days, 23:59:09

Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska

Bottom line: Lance Mackey hit the apex of his career with his fourth consecutive Iditarod victory in 2010 — a stretch in which he banked approximately $300,000 in Iditarod earnings along with winning four brand-new trucks in that stretch as well.

Mackey’s career hit hard times after his last win. In 2015, he voluntarily had his left index finger amputated because of Raynaud’s Syndrome, which is often triggered by the cold. At the 2020 Iditarod, Mackey tested positive for methamphetamine during the race and checked into rehab, citing addictions to both cocaine and alcohol as well.

In October 2020, Mackey’s partner, Jenne Smith, died in an ATV accident.

7. Martin Buser, 2002

The_Iditarod / Twitter

Iditarod time: 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes, 2 seconds

Hometown: Winterthur, Switzerland

Bottom line: Martin Buser crossed the finish line waving the American flag and finished the Iditarod in record time, becoming the first dog sled racer to finish in under nine days, cashing out approximately $62,000 for the win.

Buser’s fourth and final Iditarod victory came with a start in Wasilla instead of the traditional start in Willow (the ceremonial start is in Anchorage), which means Buser’s fastest time in the Iditarod came in a year where the race was almost 80 miles longer than most years.

6. John Baker, 2011

Mark Thiessen / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 8 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes, 39 seconds

Hometown: Kotzebue, Alaska

Bottom line: One of the most memorable Iditarod winners in history was John Baker, the first member of a native Alaskan tribe and the first Jewish winner of the race.

Baker, who was raised in remote Kotzebue, Alaska, began dog sled racing at 14 years old and his time of 8 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes and 39 seconds in his 2011 win set the record for the fastest finish to that point in race history.

What an amazing, inspirational story.

5. Dallas Seavey, 2015

AP Photo

Iditarod time: 8 days, 18 hours, 13 minutes, 6 seconds

Hometown: Seward, Alaska

Bottom line: This was the third Iditarod victory in Dallas Seavey’s historic career, and it happened with a change in the start. It went from Fairbanks to Nome instead of from Anchorage to Nome because of a lack of snow.

This was also a memorable year for the race because it featured Dallas Seavey and his father, three-time Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey, finishing 1-2 in the race.

And you thought LeBron James wanting Bronny to come play in the NBA with him was extra.

4. Dallas Seavey, 2014

The_Iditarod / Twitter

Iditarod time: 8 days, 13 hours, 4 minutes, 19 seconds

Hometown: Seward, Alaska

Bottom line: Dallas Seavey broke the Iditarod time record set by John Baker just three years earlier when he finished the trail in just a shade over 8 1/2 days.

It was an iconic finish for Seavey, who was captured sprinting next to his dogs on foot toward the finish line in Nome, where he brought home $50,400 in prize money.

3. Dallas Seavey, 2016

Mark Thiessen / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 8 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes, 16 seconds

Hometown: Seward, Alaska

Bottom line: This was the third consecutive Iditarod victory for Dallas Seavey and fourth win overall, breaking his own record by finishing the race in just a shade under 8 1/2 days.

Just like in 2014, Seavey finished the race sprinting beside his dogs, with Reef serving as one of his lead dogs for the second year in a row.

Dallas Seavey beat his father, Mitch Seavey, down the stretch. Dallas Seavey cut his dogs down to just a half-dozen as his father chased him with a team of 10 dogs, but his son proved too tough to catch.

2. Mitch Seavey, 2017

Ellamarie Quimby / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 8 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes, 13 seconds

Hometown: Seward, Alaska

Bottom line: Mitch Seavey’s third and final Iditarod victory in 2017 made history. At 59 years old, he broke his own record as the oldest person to win the race.

That particular record made the Seavey family owners of two pretty amazing Iditarod marks, with Mitch Seavey as the oldest winner and his son, Dallas Seavey, as the youngest winner in Iditarod history when he won his first championship in 2012, at 25 years old.

1. Dallas Seavey, 2021

Marc Lester / AP Photo

Iditarod time: 7 days, 14 hours, 8 minutes, 57 seconds

Hometown: Seward, Alaska

Bottom line: In 2021, Dallas Seavey joined the legendary Rick Swenson as the only five-time Iditarod winners in history, and Seavey did it in high fashion by becoming the first dog sled racer to finish the Iditarod in under eight days.

At just 34 years old, the only question remaining about Dallas Seavey seems to be not if but when he will break the tie with Swenson.

And how many more times can Seavey win the whole thing?