Born: December 26, 1954, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Susan Butcher is an American sled-dog racer, four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the most demanding race of its kind. Butcher was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After graduating from high school in 1972, she moved to Boulder, Colorado, and became involved in sled-dog racing or mushing. In 1975, she moved to Alaska, eventually settling in a small cabin in the Wrangell Mountains, where she lived in virtual isolation while training a dog team.
In 1978, Butcher entered her first Iditarod, finishing 19th. The next year, she finished ninth, and soon after the race she helped lead the first sled-dog team to reach the summit of Mount McKinley, a peak in south central Alaska that is the highest in North America. Butcher placed fifth in the Iditarod in both 1980 and 1981. She finished second in 1982, ninth in 1983, and second in 1984. In 1985, her team was attacked by a moose and she had to withdraw from the race. In 1986, however, she won the race with a record time of 11 days 15 hours 6 minutes (since broken). Butcher was only the second woman to win the race, following American Libby Riddles, who won in 1985. Butcher also won the Iditarod in 1987 and 1988. She finished second in 1989 and won in 1990, becoming the second person to win the Iditarod four times, after American Rick Swenson. Butcher also won numerous other sled-dog races during her career.
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