Musher Jessie Holmes has won the longest-ever Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Bundled-up well wishers lined a street along the Bering Sea coastline in the early morning darkness Friday, cheering him across the finish line in the Gold Rush town of Nome.

After over a week of cold temperatures, physical and mental tests and back-and-forth competition, the winner of the 2025 Iditarod has been crowned. Jessie Holmes crossed the finish line first in the annual dog sled race,

The Interior Alaska musher won his first Iditarod on his eighth try, arriving in Nome with his dog team early Friday.

NOME, Alaska (AP) — Jessie Holmes, a former reality television star, won the longest-ever Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Friday. Holmes was first to the finish line in the Gold Rush town of Nome, on the Bering Sea coast. The race began March 3 in Fairbanks after a lack of snow forced changes to the route and starting point.

The Iditarod went Hollywood in its 53rd year, and it made for a competition all the more memorable. The Great American Dog Sled Race proved rather time-consuming, with a lack of snow forcing organizers to change the event's usual route.

Holmes had a three-hour lead over his closest competitor, Matt Hall, who said he had stopped trying to catch up.

Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes won the 53rd Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Friday, March 14, ending a run that was as commanding as the race was long.

NOME — Jessie Holmes, a 43-year-old Alabamian who came to Alaska more than 20 years ago, has earned his first win in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Holmes crossed under the burled arch in Nome just before 3 a.m. Friday with 10 dogs on the line, completing his journey in a preliminary time of 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes and 41 seconds.

After the 2020 race, it took a vintage plane to get Thomas Waerner and his 16 dogs back home to Norway from Alaska at the start of the pandemic.