On a cold day in March 2006 Rachael Scdoris of Bend, Oregon, finished the Iditarod Trail International Sled Dog Race, in Alaska. But unlike her peers, Rachael did it legally blind. Rachael has a rare disorder, congenital achromatopsia, which makes her color blind, farsighted, and nearsighted. Becoming the first visually impaired athlete to finish the Iditarod did not happen overnight.
Rachael, now twenty-one, began dog-sledding at the age of three with encouragement from her father, Jerry, a champion musher. By the time she was fifteen, she was the youngest person to complete a nearly 500-mile race across the Rockies in Wyoming, known as the IPSSSDR competition. Honored twice by the Women’s Sports Foundation as one of the top 100 female athletes in the U.S., Rachael is a true inspiration for athletes—and non-athletes—everywhere.
The Iditarod, which covers 1,150 miles of Alaskan wilderness from Anchorage to Nome, commemorates a medical mission in 1925, when, during an outbreak of diphtheria, the only way to get medicine to the towns was by dog sled. To say the race is brutal is no exaggeration: Mushers and their dog teams must contend with thousands of miles of rough terrain, dense forests, empty tundra, frozen rivers, rocky mountains, and windy coastline. During the 2006 Iditarod she fell a few times and the radios she and her partner use to stay in touch broke. She endured temperatures as low as -52 degrees Fahrenheit and winds in excess of 60 miles per hour, finishing after 12 days, 10 hours and 42 minutes!
This was not the first time Rachael attempted the grueling race. In the 2005 Iditarod, she traveled 732 miles, only to have to quit part way through when her dog team contracted a virus on the trail. Over the years Rachael has garnered much attention for her efforts. In 2005, Nike honored her with the Casey Martin Award. Nike created the award to recognize the efforts of athletes who, like PGA Tour Golfer Martin, overcome significant physical, mental, societal, or cultural challenges to excel in their sport. Rachael chose the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes as the grant recipient of the $25,000 award. In 2006 Rachael received the 2006 Hope and Spirit Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) in Washington DC. The mission of FFB is to drive research that provides prevention, treatment, and cures for people affected by retinal degenerative diseases.
For someone so talented, Rachael is modest about her achievements as a racer. On an ABC News report, she commented about the race: “People consider that bravery. I don’t think that is. I think it’s just not letting what most people would consider a barrier be a barrier to me.”