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Alaska's Iditarod race committee has identified four-time champion 

 as the musher whose dogs tested positive for a banned opioid pain reliever in this year's race. Seavey is denying the charge and has withdrawn from the 2018 dog sled race in protest.

Last week, the Iditarod Trail Committee announced that at the March finish in Nome this year, four dogs from a single team had tested positive for the drug tramadol. The committee 

initially declined to name the musher involved.

However, competitors kept up pressure to release the name of the accused musher. On Monday, the 

 released a statement signed by 83 current and former competitors calling for the musher to be named within 72 hours, according to The Associated Press.

 in this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race 

behind his father, 57-year-old Mitch Seavey.

In a YouTube video, a visibly agitated Dallas Seavey denied any wrongdoing and fired back at the race organizers, saying he had been cooperating with them to clear things up.

"I did nothing wrong," Seavey said in the video.

"I have never knowingly broken any race rule. I have never given any banned substance to my dogs," he said, adding that he fully expects to be banned but that he doesn't care "if I never make another cent" from the sport, which he said "is my life."

He said he spent several months trying to explain how his dogs showed positive for the drug, but instead was "thrown under the bus."

"I believe this was given to my dogs maliciously," he said. "That's one of the options. I think that is the most likely option. There are numerous ways that could have been done."

Crime, Law and Justice

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Under pressure from competitors, the race committee said the 30-year-old musher is under suspicion of giving his dogs the drug tamadol in this year's race. Seavey has denied any wrongdoing.

Iditarod names four-time champ Dallas Seavey in dog doping scandal

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