“After an emergency meeting Monday, the Iditarod Trail Committee announced Eddie Burke Jr. has been disqualified from this year’s race, just days before the March 2 ceremonial start in Anchorage. The board cited a race rule which states all “Iditarod mushers will be held to a high standard of personal and professional conduct. Musher conduct that is recklessly injurious to the Iditarod, Iditarod competitors, sponsors or anyone associated with the race is strictly prohibited.”
Eddie Burke Jr. arrived in Nome as the top rookie of the 2023 Iditarod on March 14, 2023. (Ben Matheson/AKPM)
Alaska Public Media states, “The Iditarod has disqualified a musher from the upcoming running of the Last Great Race. A release from the Iditarod Trail Committee says the ITC board held an emergency meeting Monday and decided to disqualify Eddie Burke Jr. of Anchorage. It said the disqualification is pursuant to rule 53, which says, “All Iditarod mushers will be held to a high standard of personal and professional conduct.
Per ESPN , The board cited a race rule which states all “Iditarod mushers will be held to a high standard of personal and professional conduct. Musher conduct that is recklessly injurious to the Iditarod, Iditarod competitors, sponsors or anyone associated with the race is strictly prohibited.”
It did not cite a specific reason for his removal, and message sent to Iditarod President and CEO Rob Urbach on Tuesday was not immediate returned.
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”The release did not explain what Burke did to violate the rule, but Alaska court records show the 34-year musher is facing felony and misdemeanor assault charges for a May 2022 domestic violence incident in Anchorage.”
Burke was the top rookie in last year’s Iditarod as well as the Yukon Quest Alaska 300 earlier in February.
Burke’s disqualification follows a message sent to Iditarod mushers saying that the ITC board has been informed about, “a number of accusations being made within our community concerning violence and abuse against women.”
It does not name any mushers but goes on to say that the ITC board and personal conduct committee are “monitoring the situation closely”.
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