«The King» has landed in Alta

Torsdag ettermiddag ankom Jeff King Alta etter en lang reise fra Alaska. Jeff King skal følge Finnmarksløpet 2011 en hel uke.

Jeff King arrived Alta Thursday afternoon after a long journey from Alaska. He will follow Finnmarksløpet 2011 for a whole week. He will experience the race close-up as he is going to follow race marshall Don Lyrek through the whole 1000 kilometer race from start to goal.

Jeff King (55) is from California, but moved to Alaska in 1975. He started racing dogs already back in -76. He has won the Iditarod 4 times; in -93, -96, -98 and in 2006. These mushers have won the Iditarod four times: Martin Buser, Susan Butcher, Doug Swingley and Lance Mackey. Only Rick Swenson has won the Iditarod more times – five in total. When King won in 2006 he was the oldest to ever win this race. All these mushers live in Alaska.

In 2003 the Norwegian Robert Sørlie surprisingly won the Iditarod 03. Many meant that this was a coincident due to many special circumstances that year. It was unlikely that a man could come all the way from Norway and win the longest dog-sled race in the world. When Robert Sørlie returned in -05 and won again they understood that it was not merely a coincident that he was number one. -When Robert came over and won for the second time we understood that he is a great musher. We became even more interested in the sled-dog sport in Norway and expecially Finnmarksløpet. We had heard about the race and started to follow it and the general long-distance sled-dog sport in Norway even closer. We noticed that Sørlie was beaten by other mushers in Norway after -05, and we realized that the racers in Norway are on a high level. I look forward to following the race and to get to know the people here and have a lot of expectations for the coming days and weeks, says Jeff King. 

The Iditarod starts these days and when asked whether it will be strange to be in Alta when the mushers are on the tracks in Alaska, King answers: I am 55 years old and do not want to race the Iditarod to end up as number 25 or something. I know and have experienced how much time and energy one needs to win these races, and there is a time for everything. I want to do other things. I still have dogs, but not so many, and instead I spend time travelling and visiting other races. I am very happy to be here in Alta and I look forward to Saturday and the official opening of Finnmarksløpet 2011.