 | This article needs to be updated.(October 2021) |
Kati Dagenais | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kati Alaux 5 August 1969 [1] |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Accupuncturist [2] |
| Years active | 2007–2017 |
| Known for | Sled-dog racing |
Kati Dagenais (born Kati Alaux 5 August 1969) [1] [2] is a musher, an athlete in sled-dog racing. In 2009 she won the title of world champion in sled-dog racing in the 4-dog and 6-dog categories. [3] [4] In 2013 she won the world championship in 8-dog racing. [5]
Kati Dagenais is a practicing acupuncturist who accompanied her husband, Martin Dagenais, to sled-dog races. When he was injured in 2008, she stepped in to train the dogs and quickly made a name for herself. She won three of four races in her first year of competitive racing and the following year became world champion. [2] [5]
Dagenais, who was barely five feet tall and less than 100 pounds, began intensive bodybuilding for the strength to control an 8-dog team. [2] Switching from 6-dog to the 8-dog category, Dagenais won the 2010 International Classic for Huskies in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts. [6]
Dagensais won the 8-dog race at the 2012 Gosford Challenge, [7] setting a new track record of 43 minutes 58.49 seconds. Second and third-place finished 3 and 4 minutes behind her. [8] She followed this with a gold medal win at the 2012 Limited North American Championship in Alaska. [9]
Due to the logistics of air transporting a dog team, Dagenais entered the 6-dog event at the 2015 World Championships in Todtmoos, Germany. Despite further reducing her team to 5 dogs after her head dog was injured, she finished with the bronze medal. [10]
Dagenais won the six-dog event at the 2017 Mauricie Challenge. She noted that there were more female competitors and champions, and suggested that a maternal instinct was appreciated by the dogs. [11]
At the 2017 World Cup in Haliburton, Ontario, Dangenais was left alone on the track when her 8-dog team took off when she stepped off the sled to fix a problem. Competitor Lars Lindh stopped and brought her on his sled for 2 or 3 km (1 or 2 mi) until they caught her team. Dagenais expressed how grateful and impressed she was for Lindh's sportsmanship in putting her safety before precious seconds in the hunt for World Cup gold. Lindh ultimately won gold in the event. [12]
Dagenais was also a regular competitor at the Dryland Canadian Championship Dog Races run on dirt trails in October. [13]
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 14 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.
Mushing is a sport or transport method powered by dogs. It includes carting, pulka, dog scootering, sled dog racing, skijoring, freighting, and weight pulling. More specifically, it implies the use of one or more dogs to pull a sled, most commonly a specialized type of dog sled on snow, or a rig on dry land.
The Iditarod Trail, also known historically as the Seward-to-Nome Trail, is a thousand-plus mile (1,600 km) historic and contemporary trail system in the US state of Alaska. The trail began as a composite of trails established by Alaskan native peoples. Its route crossed several mountain ranges and valleys and passed through numerous historical settlements en route from Seward to Nome. The discovery of gold around Nome brought thousands of people over this route beginning in 1908. Roadhouses for people and dog barns sprang up every 20 or so miles. By 1918 World War I and the lack of 'gold fever' resulted in far less travel. The trail might have been forgotten except for the 1925 diphtheria outbreak in Nome. In one of the final great feats of dog sleds, twenty drivers and teams carried the life-saving serum 674 miles (1,085 km) in 127 hours. Today, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race serves to commemorate the part the trail and its dog sleds played in the development of Alaska, and the route and a series of connecting trails have been designated Iditarod National Historic Trail.
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."
A Eurohound is a type of dog bred for sled dog racing. The eurohound is crossbred from the Alaskan husky and any of a number of pointing breeds ("pointers"), but most often the German Shorthair Pointer,
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.
Leonhard "Sepp" Seppala was a Norwegian-Finnish-American sled dog breeder, trainer and musher who with his dogs played a pivotal role in the 1925 serum run to Nome, and participated in the 1932 Winter Olympics. Seppala introduced the work dogs used by Native Siberians at the time to the American public; the breed came to be known as the Siberian Husky in the English-speaking world. The Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award, which honors excellence in sled dog care, is named in honour of him.
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.
Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts is a town in the province of Quebec, Canada, in the regional county municipality of Les Laurentides in the administrative region of Laurentides, also known as the "Laurentians" or the Laurentian Mountains. Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts borders on a lake called Lac des Sables, and is located approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Montreal, and 130 kilometres (81 mi) northeast of Ottawa.
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.
The Jamaica Dogsled Team is a team of sled dogs and mushers headquartered at Chukka Caribbean Adventures in Ocho Rios, located in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. The dog team is made up of strays rescued by the Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and offers dryland dogsled rides, along with the adventure center's other outdoor experiences. In addition, the two mushers Newton Marshall and Damion Robb, compete in sled races throughout the US and Canada, using leased dog teams. Country music singer Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville is the team's major sponsor.
Mel Andrews is a British adventurer and athlete, specializing as a Musher in Dogsled Racing. On 5 February 2013, she became the first British woman to finish Europe's biggest sled dog race, Femundløpet. A month later Andrews broke the record for fastest GB rookie to finish the World's longest 8-dog race Finnmarksløpet.
George Attla was a champion sprint dog musher. Attla won ten Anchorage Fur Rendezvous Championships and eight North American Open championships with a career that spanned from 1958 to 2011. Attla was the subject of a 1993 book titled George Attla: The Legend of the Sled-dog Trail, by Lewis "Lew" Freedman.
Aliy Zirkle is an American champion of sled dog racing.
Ryan Anderson is a four-time Beargrease champion dog musher and dog sled racer from Minnesota.
Peter Kaiser is an American dog musher who won the 2019 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Kaiser is the first Yup’ik musher and the fifth Alaska Native to win an Iditarod championship. He is from Bethel, Alaska.
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