The doped dogs of the 2017 Iditarod
Alaska, United States, 2017
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
The Iditarod is a sled dog race of nearly a thousand miles across Alaska. In 2017, four dogs on the team of Dallas Seavey, a four-time champion and that year's runner-up, tested positive at the finish for tramadol, a painkiller.
Seavey denied doping the animals and raised the possibility of sabotage by someone with access to the dogs at a checkpoint, amid friction with the race organizers. The race was unable to prove intent and, in 2018, dropped the accusation and changed its doping rules. No one was held responsible.
Sources
In the game
Stalled Sled
Sulukna checkpoint, on the banks of the Yukon River, Alaska, 4:10 am. Minus 38 degrees. The team of Kaija Lund, favorite in the thousand-mile sled dog race, won't get up from the straw.
The game borrows almost the entire setting: the race, the favorite team doped with a veterinary drug and the suspicion of sabotage at a checkpoint. Characters, perpetrator and outcome are fiction.
