Susan Butcher

Susan Howlet Butcher (born December 26, 1954 in Boston , Massachusetts , † August 5, 2006 in Seattle , Washington ) was an American dog racing sled driver ( musher ). She became famous for four victories in five years in the Iditarod dog sled race.

Susan Butcher was born in Boston and grew up near Cambridge . At the Colorado State University , she completed a veterinary degree and was an engineer for veterinary medicine. Because of her fondness for sled dog racing and husky breeding, she moved to Alaska , where she settled near the Wrangell Mountains . Susan Butcher was married to David Monson , also a well known dog sled driver.

Iditarod dog sled race

In Alaska, Susan Butcher began training for the Iditarod Dog Sled Race , a two-week race through 1,049 miles of Alaska's ice wilderness. After a few previous entries, she missed the honor of winning the race as the first woman in 1985 due to unfortunate circumstances: a moose killed two of her sled dogs and six others were seriously injured, so that Libby Riddles , a hitherto unknown driver, won the race in 1985 and went down in the annals as the first female winner.

Butcher won for the next three years ( 1986 , 1987 , 1988 ) in a row, came second in 1989 and won again in 1990 . She made it into the top five a total of twelve times. Besides Butcher, Martin Buser , Doug Swingley , Lance Mackey and Dallas Seavey also won the race four times, Rick Swenson even five times, but no other athlete dominated the sport like Butcher did in the five years of the late 1980s.

illness

On December 2, 2005 , Butcher was diagnosed with acute leukemia . At the University of Washington she underwent chemotherapy . Susan Butcher died on August 5, 2006 as a result of complications following a bone marrow transplant . She left behind her husband and two daughters, Tekla and Chisana.

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