Dog+Sled+Teams+13

Rick Swenson**, sometimes known as the "**King of the Iditarod**", born 1950 in Willmar Minnesota, is an American Dog musher who has won the 1,049-mile Iditorod trail sled dog race across the U.S state of Alaska,more times than any other competitor. He won five times, in 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, and 1991, and is the only person to win in three separate decades. Swenson competed in the Iditarod for the first time in 1976, placing 12th. The next year, he beat Jerry Riley by just 4 minutes and 52 seconds, and became known for close finishes. Swenson has won by less than an hour four times, and by less than five minutes twice. Between 1976 and 2005, he only missed one race (in 1997), withdrew from one other (in 1996), and only scratched once (in the 2005 Iditarod). He has completed 26 Iditarods, more than any other musher, and finished in the top 10 in all but three races. He was awarded Sportsmanship awards in 1983 and 1996, and the Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian award for dog care twice, in 1992 and 2004. By:Travelgirl
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