Alaska News

Is 9-fingered Iditarod champ Mitch Seavey 'getting wimpy or smart?' his son asks

Things are getting feisty in the family Seavey.

In a Facebook post Thursday, Danny Seavey wrote that he got a surprising call Wednesday morning. It was from his dad, two-time Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey, complaining, of all things, that at 30 below it was too cold for him to mush dogs.

The irony was not lost on his son.

"I'm not sure if my dad is getting wimpy or smart," he wrote.

According to the post, the elder Seavey had moved his training north due to lack of snow around his home in Sterling on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. When Danny Seavey got the call that Mitch was spending the day inside, staying warm and drinking coffee, it made him wonder how tough one has to be when it comes to competing in the Iditarod.

"When I was a kid, we never canceled or wimped out on anything. Ever. If the training schedule said to do a 50-mile run today, we did a 50-mile run today. We went if it was raining. We went if it was 40 below. We were allowed to take an extra coat at 50 below. We once raced at 63 below. Fortunately they stopped the race mid-way, with my dad the sole proponent to keep going. If we took a new trail and it turned out to be 48 GPS miles, we did an extra loop to bring it up to 50. You get the idea."

Danny writes that Mitch used to demand they tough it out, telling them to not make excuses about the cold, that "you've got lots of fingers, you can afford to freeze a few."

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Who knows if those words were ringing in Mitch's own ears when he was withdrawn from the 2011 Iditarod after nearly severing his right index finger. Mitch Seavey eventually had it amputated, joining an elite club of Iditarod champs working with fewer than 10 digits -- Lance Mackey had a finger amputated after the nerves were damaged following cancer treatment, and Martin Buser lost part of his finger in a table saw accident in just before the 2005 race from Willow to Nome.

Toughness is a constant theme when it comes to sled dog racing, with athletes and fans wondering what makes one musher tougher than another. Does it come down to difficult training conditions or strength under pressure? And does that make a champion?

Or, like Danny Seavey suggests, does it come down to simply outmaneuvering the competition?

"Maybe now that my dad's down to nine fingers he values them more. Maybe he's decided outsmarting (2012 Iditarod champion and son) Dallas may be easier than out-toughing him," Danny Seavey wrote. "I don't know."

Only time will tell. The 42nd running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is set to begin on March 1 in downtown Anchorage.

Suzanna Caldwell

Suzanna Caldwell is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News and Alaska Dispatch. She left the ADN in 2017.

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