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

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.

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 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.

Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes wins Iditarod after crossing the finish line in 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes and 41 seconds.

Jessie Holmes, a former reality television star on “Life Below Zero,” won the longest-ever Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race early Friday morning, crossing under the burled arch in Nome, Alaska, around 2:55 a.m.

Copyright © 2025 Bleacher Report, Inc. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.

Former reality star Jessie Holmes, who appeared on Life Below Zero, is the winner of the longest-ever Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Holmes began the race on March 3, according to

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.