Video: Arthur the Adventure-Racing Dog
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A Swedish team adopts a stray during the AR World Championship
At last month’s Adventure Racing World Championship in Ecuador, one athlete turned in a performance that can only be described as not human—literally.
Members of Sweden’s Team Peak Performance were fueling up for a long trek through the jungle when team captain Mikael Lindnord fed a meatball to a stray dog who was hanging around, according to a race report posted on the team’s website. At that point, the dog, nicknamed Arthur, decided he was part of the team and tagged along through the jungle.
Concerned for his safety, the team left Arthur on shore as they began the next stage of the race on kayaks, but he doggie-paddled after them. “It was too heartbreaking and we felt we couldn’t leave him, so we picked him up,” Lindnord explains in the race report.
Arthur paced Team Peak Performance to a twelfth-place finish, and has since found a new home with Lindnord in Sweden.
Trail Runner tried to get in touch with Arthur, but he could not be reached for comment.