Sports

Ron Kaiser, father of Iditarod champion Pete Kaiser, couldn't be more proud. He greeted his son as the Bethel musher pulled beneath Nome's burled arch at 3:39 a.m. Wednesday morning, winning the great 1,000-mile race. KYUK talked with the elder Kaiser Wednesday evening and learned that he hasn't slept since before his son arrived in Nome.

If you heard a roar early Wednesday morning, it likely came from Pete Kaiser fans cheering across Alaska. The Bethel musher slid under the burled arch in Nome at 3:49 a.m., pumping his arms overhead in victory as he claimed his first Iditarod championship and became the first person from Bethel and the first musher of Yup'ik heritage to win the race. Fans in Kaiser’s hometown of Bethel were running on a proud, exhausted thrill Wednesday after staying up to watch the historic win.

Pete Kaiser spoke with reporters after winning the 2019 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The first half of the discussion was moderated by Andy Angstman, an Iditarod board member and longtime friend of Kaiser’s from Bethel. You’ll hear a few questions from Angstman before it was opened up to reporters, all in front of several dozen fans and supporters there in spite of the early hour.

“We have a musher on Front Street.” It was in the wee hours of the morning when the call went out on radio station KNOM. Pete Kaiser’s friends and family, who had flown to Nome to see him and his team mush up Front Street, were ready. When they finally saw him they went wild, chanting “Way to Go, Pete!” as the Bethel musher drove his dogs through the falling snow to the Iditarod’s finish line in Nome.

Iditarod Rookie Jessica Klejka pulled into the Unalakleet checkpoint on the Iditarod Trail at 2:16 p.m. on Tuesday with 11 dogs. As she fed her team, APRN reporter Zachariah Hughes talked with her about the trail and the race so far. When asked if this was what she expected on her rookie run, Klejka responded, "Nothing prepares you for it." Klejka also describes what Pete Kaiser's win could mean to mushing in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Listen to the full interview here.

KNOM’s Ben Matheson spoke to both Pete Kaiser and Joar Leifseth Ulsom when they arrived in White Mountain on the Iditarod Trail. The two will be racing for the finish line in Nome this evening.

Bethel musher Pete Kaiser arrived in White Mountain at 8:05 a.m. on Tuesday. He will be able to get back on the Iditarod Trail at 4:05 p.m. Last year's Iditarod winner, Joar Leitseth Ulsom, came into White Mountain at 8:46 a.m. Forty-one minutes separate the two teams. With 55 miles to Safety and another 22 to Nome, fans will be up all night watching to catch the finish.