Amanda Otto | |
|---|---|
 Otto in 2023 | |
| Born | 1994or1995(age 29–30) [1] |
Amanda Otto is an American musher and sled dog racer. In 2022 she made her rookie run with a team of Alaskan huskies in the Iditarod and in 2023 placed second in the Yukon Quest, where she was called out by race organizers and race veterinarians, in a rare unanimous decision, for exemplary treatment of her dogs.
Otto grew up in Pocatello and Victor, Idaho. [2] She is the granddaughter of Jim Otto, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. [3] At age 8 she had her first experience with mushing at the American Dog Derby. [4] She participated in dog agility competitions. [5]
Her family moved to Idaho's Teton Valley where she graduated from Teton High School in 2012. [3] She attended Biola University on a soccer scholarship, captaining the team her senior year and graduating in 2016 with a degree in journalism, [6] [7] [8] and planned to play professionally until an injury ended her soccer career. [2] [4] [5]
After college Otto moved to Alaska in 2016 to become a dog handler, eventually working for Jeff King at his Husky Homestead kennel where as of 2022 she was kennel manager. [2] [4] [5] [9] Under his mentorship she raced in the Copper Basin 300, the Willow 300, and the Alpine 200 in 2021 to qualify for the Iditarod. [2] [3] [4] [5] She raced in the Iditarod for the first time in 2022, finishing 27th of 49 entries. [2]
In 2023 Otto placed second in the Yukon Quest Alaska, finishing in 4 days, 11 hours, and 17 minutes. [1] [10] Her team were in such good condition at the end of the race, still yelping and pulling, that she was awarded the Vet’s Choice Award for exemplary treatment of her dogs by the race organizers and veterinary team in the first unanimous decision in race history. [1] [10]
Otto competed in the 2024 Iditarod, leaving Anchorage on March 2, 2024 with her Husky Homestead team of fifteen dogs. Except for one dog she borrowed from a friend for the race, all of the dogs on Otto's team were raised by her. [11] On March 13, nine days, 18 hours 24 minutes and 33 seconds after the official start in Willow, Otto finished the race in 8th place with twelve dogs. Of the 29 mushers who finished, Otto was among four women who finished in the top ten, the most in Iditarod history. For her 8th place finish, Otto took home $27,450 in winnings. [12] [13] [14]
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod, is an annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska in early March. It travels from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers and a team of between 12 and 16 dogs, of which at least 5 must be on the towline at the finish line, cover the distance in 8–15 days or more. The Iditarod began in 1973 as an event to test the best sled dog mushers and teams but evolved into today's highly competitive race.
A sled dog is a dog trained and used to pull a land vehicle in harness, most commonly a sled over snow.
Sled dog racing is a winter dog sport most popular in the Arctic regions of the United States, Canada, Russia, Greenland and some European countries. It involves the timed competition of teams of sled dogs that pull a sled with the dog driver or musher standing on the runners. The team completing the marked course in the least time is judged the winner.
Susan Howlet Butcher was an American dog musher, noteworthy as the second woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1986, the second four-time winner in 1990, and the first to win four out of five sequential years. She is commemorated in Alaska by the Susan Butcher Day.
Martin Buser is a champion of sled dog racing.
The Yukon Quest, formally the Yukon Quest 1,000-mile International Sled Dog Race, is a sled dog race scheduled every February since 1984 between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon, switching directions each year. Because of the harsh winter conditions, difficult trail, and the limited support that competitors are allowed, it is considered the "most difficult sled dog race in the world", or even the "toughest race in the world"—"even tougher, more selective and less attention-seeking than the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race." The originator envisioned it as "a race so rugged that only purists would participate."
Jeff King is an American musher and sled dog racer. He is generally credited with introducing the sit-down sled which has largely replaced the standing sled traditionally used by distance mushers.
The ceremonial start of the 33rd annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across the US state of Alaska began in Anchorage on March 5, 2005, at 10 am AKST, and restarted in Willow the next day at 2 pm. After covering 1,161 miles (1,868 km) of wilderness, musher Robert Sørlie, an airport firefighter from Norway, crossed the finish line under the "burled arch" in Nome on March 16 at 8:39 am AKST. After taking care of his dogs, and an inspection to make sure all the mandatory equipment was in his sled, Sørlie was declared the winner by Race Marshal Mark Norman, with a time of 9 days, 18 hours, 39 minutes, and 31 seconds and won US$72,066.67 and a new truck. When asked how it felt to win a second time, Sørlie said "it feels good, I'm ready for breakfast." His team of dogs averaged 4.65 mi/h (7.58 km/h). The Red Lantern in last was Phil Morgan, an Alaska Airlines pilot, and when he crossed the finish line on March 21 at 8:02 pm AKST, the Widow's Lantern hanging on the burled arch was extinguished, which signaled the end of the race.
Dorothy G. Page was best known as "Mother of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race", the 1,049-mile dog sled race across the U.S. state of Alaska.
DeeDee Ann Jonrowe is an American kennel owner and dog musher who is a three-time runner up in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. She is a very popular figure in the sport, and her completion of the 1,049-mile+ race in 2003 just three weeks after completing chemotherapy for breast cancer received widespread publicity.
Emmitt Peters Sr. the "Yukon Fox", was an Alaskan American hunter, fisher, trapper, and dog musher. The last rookie to win the 1,049 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, he and his lead dogs Nugget and Digger shattered the previous speed record by almost six days.
The ceremonial start of the 34th annual (XXXIV) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across the U.S. state of Alaska began amidst the crowds of Anchorage on March 4, 2006, and the start of the competitive race, or "restart", began the next day in Willow. The race followed a modified version of the northern route for 1,151 mi (1,852 km) across the Alaska Range, through the sparsely inhabited Interior, along the Yukon River, and then up the coast of the Bering Sea to the city of Nome. Unlike in previous years, where the teams had to deal with unseasonably warm temperatures and soft, mushy snow, the weather was cold, with temperatures reported as low as −40 °F (−40 °C).
Ramy "Ray" Brooks is an Alaska Native kennel owner and operator, motivational speaker, and dog musher who specializes in long-distance races. He is a two-time runner up in the 1,049+ mi Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across the U.S. state of Alaska, and a former winner of the 1,000 mi (1,600 km) Yukon Quest dog sled race across both Canada and the U.S.
Lance Mackey was an American dog musher and dog sled racer from Fairbanks, Alaska. Mackey was a four-time winner of both the 1,000-mile (1,600 km) Yukon Quest and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Newton Marshall is a professional independent dogsled musher.
Dallas Seavey is an American dog musher, and is the only musher to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across the U.S. state of Alaska six times: in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2021, and 2024. In 2011, Seavey competed in and won the Yukon Quest sled dog race. In 2018 and 2019, Seavey also competed in Europe's longest sled dog race, Norway's Finnmarkslopet.
Aliy Zirkle is an American champion of sled dog racing.
Brent Sass is an American dog musher who is one of only six people to have won both the Iditarod and Yukon Quest sled dog races.
Apayauq Reitan is an Iñupiaq dog musher from Norway. She participated in the 2019 Iditarod as a rookie, finishing in 28th place in 12 days, 5 hours, 15 minutes, and 17 seconds. She also ran the Yukon Quest that year, also as a rookie. In 2022, she became the first openly transgender woman to compete in the Iditarod. She is a citizen of both Norway and the United States.