Okay, kids, pull out your pencils. It's time for a pop quiz. Quick, name the longest annual race in sports. The Indianapolis 500, you say? Try again. Second question: What sporting event takes place in negative-100-degree weather with gale-force winds? John Madden's raid of the Dairy Queen icebox? Close, but no cigar. Here's one more to redeem yourself: Who's the most successful animal lover in all of sports? Michael Vi -- okay, that's not even funny.
The answer to the first two, of course, is the Iditarod, the annual sled dog race in Alaska where mushers and teams of 16 dogs cover 1,161 miles over the course of as little as eight days. The answer to the last question, then, is Lance Mackey, probably the most dominant winner in sports over the past three years whom you've never heard of, far surpassing your household names of LeBron James and Tiger Woods.
Mackey was born to be a musher and to race in the Iditarod. His father Dick was one of the founders of the race and eventually won it in 1978 by one second. Mackey's older brother, Rick, won the 1983 Iditarod.
In 2007, Mackey became the first person to win both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in the same year, a feat that garnered him an ESPY Award nomination. Not to be outdone the following year, Mackey went back out and did it again.
This year's Iditarod was simply an astonishing event of pure domination, as Mackey joined only two other mushers to string together three consecutive wins. He won by over six hours, even after stopping his team to primp and thank each of the 15 dogs before resuming the final stretch to the finish line. When he crossed, his first words were calling his dogs "the real heroes," dealing out treats as he hugged and pampered the winning animals.
But what makes Mackey's story so inspirational is that he has transformed his gift as a musher into a desire to help people, refusing to shun the little guy like so many stars today. Called "the people's musher," he often stopped along the trail to sign autographs or talk to adoring fans, speaking about adversity, dog racing or even the weather.
Dog racing is a sport where it is so easy to cheat or to hurt the dogs in the snowy and desolate outback of Alaska. Musher Ramy Brooks, for instance, is currently on a three-year probation for abusing his sled dogs. Three dogs died in this year's race. Yet Mackey does it the right way, something some athletes could learn a thing or two about. After winning the Veterinarians' Choice Award following the 2007 Yukon Quest, Mackey said "This means more to me than winning this damn race."
To put it bluntly, athletes' relations with animals lately have been abysmal. First, there was Brooks' suspension on May 18, 2007, followed almost immediately by Michael Vick's unlawful dog-fighting activities, which only exacerbated the problem and further thrust it into the public's eye. So it can be hard to remember that shining examples like Mackey are out there, racing, winning and doing the impossible: making PETA happy.
A survivor of neck cancer, Mackey is the founder of Lance Mackey's Comeback Kennel, a small, low-budget kennel dedicated to finding homes for his prized pups. In a state with no professional teams and very few colleges to root for, the Iditarod racers are the hometown heroes. Mackey has developed into so much more than a winner, providing inspiration for cancer survivors and people currently going through the process. This is a role he humbly accepts.
Sure, there is no HGH in dog racing, no Primobolan pills to buy. But like every other sport, there's a right way and a wrong way to go about business. Mackey is the epitome of the former and should be held as a shining example.
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Alex Prewitt is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Alexander.Prewitt@tufts.edu.
