Photos by: Caitlin Skvorc / Frontiersman.com
In the ongoing drug scandal saga with the Iditarod Trail Slide Race, the photographer issues a statement and removes himself from next year’s competition.
For the first time ever, officials at the Iditarod Trail Slide have tested race participants positive for recent tramadol use, and until this time, a team player’s name has been withheld because officials have been unable to establish intent to drug the dogs.
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But now, a four-time Iditarod Champion has come out of the Dallas Civic Club as a therapist who tested positive, and has released a 20-minute video claiming that he is not only innocent, but believes there is “cancer” in the Iditarod race itself.
In the video, Seify says he constantly asked race officials to release his name, because he undoubtedly knew he had not given his dogs the drugs, and it could not have been given in error. Finally, the Iditarod Steering Committee decided to release his identity, but Syfy says it was only because he pushed them to.
Syfy believes his dogs may have been on the drugs maliciously, in an effort to deliberately tell his dogs to be positive, and to make him look bad, and although he is under the rule of segregation with the race, his video statement says that everything Iditarod says is not true.
More than that, he says, the committee did not try to protect him, nor any of the other fascists, in an effort to limit the scandal. Seavey believes there should be more security with the food drops and other parts of the race, and that the committee simply does not want to address the problems, preferring to “throw him under the bus”.
In protest of the attempt to point fingers at him, Seifi says, he withdrew from the race. He says he wouldn’t fit under the bus, and the board never liked him because he’s outspoken and on the side of supporters rather than the race itself.
The Act of Understanding says participants can’t speak critically about the race or the officials involved, so the Iditarod Trail Commission will be obligated to watch if he faces any punishment. Although they have already said that Seavey will not face prosecution because no intent could be considered, Seavey says that is not good enough because he is innocent and would not allow the commission to act as if something had happened on his watch.
Seavey says in his video that he believes the commission is deliberately “leaking” his name because he was a scapegoat for him, because they know he’s innocent but don’t want to take action to increase safety. He believes that the Board is doing all it can to make him appear willfully guilty, and he cannot tolerate such speculation.
The Iditarod Club responsible for the end of the festival asked to release the name of the operator, as they wanted to stop speculation about all the knights. Club president and competitor Wade Marred said he did not believe Sevey was deliberately administering the drug to his dogs, saying he had too much integrity and intelligence to do such a thing before the test. As Seavey says, he doesn’t add up, and Marrs said he doesn’t really know what to think, because sabotages certainly seem possible.
Seavey comes from a family of mushers, with his father Mitch having won last year, and Seavey having won the second. He says he spent 10 years trying to be the best he could in the sport of bobsleigh, even though as a wrestler he could have been linked to the Olympics. He thinks there is definitely something disgraceful and personal against him, and the only way he can get a vandalism theory out of his view.
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Seavey asks his fellow mushers to stand with him and get to the bottom of what happened, for the good of his team, and the sport itself.
The Iditarod Trail Commission has not issued a response regarding Seavey’s video statement yet.
