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NOME, Alaska (WIAT) — A couple of weeks ago, there had only been five people to have won the Iditarod sled dog race twice in a row.
Now, Jessie Holmes is the sixth.
Just after midnight Wednesday, the Phenix City-native won the famed Alaskan race, just as the sun was going down along the Bering Strait in Nome. The race, which has been a point of pride in Alaska since 1973, runs over 1,000 miles from Anchorage, Alaska to Nome.
Holmes first won the race in 2025 and has competed in the Iditarod every year since 2018. In total, he completed the 2026 race in 9 days, 7 hours, 32 minutes and 51 seconds, beating his time during his first win last year by nearly a day. In 2025, weather conditions changed different routes along the race, making it the longest race in the sport’s history with over 1,200 miles.
Holmes’ story began 4,000 miles away from Alaska in Phenix City, Alabama, where he grew up with his mother, dreaming of living on the land like Robert Redford in “Jeremiah Johnson.” At the same time, Holmes was a lover of dogs, often taking in strays from the woods outside the house.
Holmes left Alabama shortly before 2000, making his way across the country and up into Canada, often doing different odd jobs, from carpentry to tree removal. By 2004, he had made his way up to Alaska. While working for a family in the Yukon, he had his first experience with sled dog racing, a sport that he immediately fell in love with and would change his life.
“I just fell in love with the lifestyle,” he said in 2024. “I fell in love with the dogs out in the wilderness.”
It wouldn’t be until a few years later that Holmes would enter his first sled dog race, coming up last. He wouldn’t race again for another three to four years, but he soon began winning races. By 2018, he decided to compete in the Iditarod for the first time.
I kind of had to say, “Are we going to chase this?” Holmes said in an interview with CBS 42 in 2024. “Do I want to go down this road?”
For several years, Holmes was a cast member of “Life Below Zero” on National Geographic.
With his second win, Holmes received an $80,000 grand prize.
The Iditarod has been an Alaskan tradition since 1973.
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