Lance Mackey was a legendary musher who won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race four times.
- Died: September 7, 2022 (Who else died on September 7?)
- Details of death: Died of throat cancer at the age of 52.
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Iditarod
Mackey was the son of Dick Mackey, one of the founders of the Iditarod who won the race in 1978. The younger Mackey ran his first Iditarod in 2001 after working as a fisherman. He quickly rose to the top of the race’s competitors, winning for four consecutive years from 2007 to 2010. He was one of only seven people to win four Iditarods. Mackey also raced in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest, winning that race for four consecutive years, from 2005 to 2008. In 2007, he became the first person to win both the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest in the same year. Mackey was diagnosed with cancer in 2001, living with the disease and its treatments for most of his racing career. In some years, his illness forced him to scratch or to sit out the race. Mackey’s team of dogs was dominated by descendants of his champion dog, Zorro. In 2015, Mackey’s story was told in the feature-length documentary “The Great Alone.”
Notable quote
“Like most everybody here, at least one to 10 days a year, we’re somebody, you know. And this event has allowed us to become somebody. If it wasn’t for dog racing and this event, we would just be people with dogs.” —from a 2022 interview for KTUU
Tributes to Lance Mackey
Full obituary: Anchorage Daily News
