mira wrote:10 out of 46, that is 20%.
One of them were covid, one were a bad accident, one were illness on musher. Wonder if many hasn't been able to train the teams as usual because of you-know-what?
We have seen it in other sports, sky high numbers of serious injuries on ACLs for instance in European handball and soccer.
Possible, but far less likely than other professional sports. It's a socially distanced activity done by people who like social distance.
Edit: I was a little flippant, so thought I'd add an explanation. Mushers have not been out less, we're out on the trails as much as ever. It's just that it's not been possible to hold events. Race organizers and venues are not willing to take on the responsibility of being "super spreader events". We are out with our dogs.
I think it's likely that the lack of events has caused the sick dogs. Normally, teams would be mixing during race season, and they are exposed to the doggie viruses early and often, so get to herd immunity earlier in the season. Add to that the Iditarod is an out and back, with the dogs running over the same trail twice, and the lead teams never really are exposed to viruses that are there.
GK