Butcher, Susan Howlet

▪ 2007

      American sled-dog racer and trainer (b. Dec. 26, 1954, Boston, Mass—d. Aug. 5, 2006, Seattle, Wash.), dominated her sport for more than a decade and won the challenging 1,770-km (1,100-mi) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska four times. She first entered the Iditarod in 1975 and twice finished in second place (1982 and 1984). Butcher began the 1985 race with a solid lead but was eliminated from the competition when a moose charged across her path, killing 2 of her dogs and wounding 13. That year Butcher lost to Libby Riddles her chance to become the first woman to win the Iditarod. The following year, however, Butcher came in first with a record-breaking time of 11 days 15 hours 6 minutes. She finished first in 1987 and 1988 to become the only musher in the history of the sport to have won the Iditarod in three consecutive years. She won for a fourth time in 1990. Butcher retired from competitive sledding after the 1993 Iditarod.

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