Second place finisher Joar Leifseth Ulsom waves to the crowd shortly after finishing the 2019 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Photo by Jeff Schultz/ (C) 2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Defending Champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom has maintained his streak of top ten finishes by claiming runner-up honors in Iditarod XLVII.  Joar followed Peter Kaiser to the finish line in Nome by just 12 minutes.  Joar’s total run time was 9 days, 12 hours and 51 minutes. 

In his seventh run to Nome, Joar has finished in not just the top ten but top seven 7 times!  In 2018, Joar claimed Iditarod gold with a run time of 9 days and 12 hours.  In 2017 on the weather altered Fairbank’s route, Joar’s run time was 8 days and 11 hours. In 2013, Joar was the highest placing rookie and received the Jerry Austin Rookie of the Year Honors.

Joar, wearing bib #28, had worked his way into the front runners by Skwentna checkpoint.  By Rainy Pass he was following only Nicolas Petit and Peter Kaiser.  Joar was the second musher into McGrath.  He chose to take his long layover at Takotna.  Around Iditarod it became Ulsom and Petit out front.  Petit departed Eagle Island well ahead of Joar and Kaiser.  Kaiser was first into Kaltag.  Departing Kaltag, Jessie Royer was running a strong fourth.  With Nicolas Petit scratching at Shaktoolik, it was a duel between Ulsom and Kaiser to the finish.  What an exciting race.

Joar grew up near the Arctic Circle in Norway.  He started mushing by borrowing his neighbor’s two house dogs to pull him around on skies.  Watching Iditarod movies planted the idea of long distance mushing in Joar’s mind.  In 2007 Joar started mushing and building his own team.  He earned a degree from an agricultural college in Norway and worked as a cowboy while he ran the great races of Scandinavia before coming to Alaska.