Libby Riddles (born April 1, 1956) is an American

dog musher 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 commo ...

, and the first woman to win the

Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod, is an annual long-distance sled dog race run in early March. It travels from Anchorage to Nome, entirely within the US state of Alaska. Mushers and a team of between 12 a ...

. Riddles was born in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

, to Willard and Mary Riddles, and moved to

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

(from Minnesota; she had been living in St. Joseph while attending Apollo High School in St. Cloud) just before her 17th birthday. She saw a sprint race and fell in love with mushing. Her first race was the Clines Mini Mart Sprint race in 1978, in which she won first place. After finishing 18th and 20th in the 1980 and 1981 Iditarod races, she decided to breed her own

sled dog A sled dog is a dog trained and used to pull a land vehicle in Dog harness, harness, most commonly a Dog sled, sled over snow. Sled dogs have been used in the Arctic for at least 8,000 years and, along with watercraft, were the only transport ...

s in order to advance. She moved to

Shaktoolik, Alaska Shaktoolik ( ik, Saktuliq, ; russian: Шактулик) is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 251, up from 230 in 2000. Shaktoolik is one of a number of Alaskan communities threatened by eros ...

and worked as a fish seller for a short period while training her dogs, then moved to

Teller, Alaska Teller ( ik, Tala or ) is a city in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 229, a decrease from 268 in 2000. It is situated on the southern half of the spit called ''Nuuk'' in Inupiaq, which separate ...

where she met Joe Garnie; they became partners and started breeding and training dogs together. On March 20, 1985, Riddles won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, becoming the first woman to do so. She wrote three books about her adventures and also became a professional speaker. In 2007, her Iditarod Trail Race victory was inducted as a "Hall of Fame Moment" into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* Dog mushers from Alaska Living people 1956 births Iditarod champions Sportspeople from Madison, Wisconsin {{US-wintersport-bio-stub