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LATEST
Rachael scratched on 3/13 after gettubg up to
62nd of 95 mushers in the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled
Dog Race More News. She
finished 45th in 2009.
Bio
Results
2008 Idtarod
2006
Idtarod Status
Scdoris Conquers the
Iditarod
Sledder
blazes Iditarod trail for visually
impaired - USA Today
Rachael Scdoris, in the
beginning
Check www.rachaelscdoris.com
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Bio
Rachael Scdoris, 24, was born in Oregon and
graduated from Redmond High School in 2003. She
says her occupation is sled dog racer and tour
operator. Rachael was born with Congenital
Achromatopsia, a rare vision disorder. She is
colorblind and her acuity is 20/200. She is
extremely light sensitive. She is a member of the
Central Oregon Resources for Independent Living and
the United States Association of Blind Athletes.
Rachael was honored by the Women's Sports
Foundation in New York City as one of the top women
athletes in America. She served as Captain of her
high school track and cross country teams. Rachael
has been mushing since she was three years old and
finished her first Iditarod in 2006. She says, "I
love everything about dog mushing--working with
dogs in the outdoors, the competition, and the
ability to use all of my past experiences to
improve my team. The Iditarod embodies all these
things." Rachael enjoys "anything outdoors not
involving a ball."
Snippets
Rachael Scdoris, the legally blind musher from
Bend, Ore., had to call it a race this year, opting
to scratch from the race after trying to leave
Koyuk today behind her visual interpreter, Joe
Runyan. After the team of mushers talked it over,
Scdoris returned to the checkpoint to scratch and
Runyan continued on to finish the race with a
strong and fast team of 14 dogs. Scdoris had 10
dogs when she scratched. She was concerned with
their health. Some were sick when she left Koyuk,
race officials said. It’s a frustratingly late
time for Scdoris to scratch. She has started the
race three times, finishing in 2006.
2008 Iditarod
2008. Best finish in two Iditarods, 57th in 2006.
Scdoris, 22, was born with congenital
achromatopsia, a rare vision disorder. She is
colorblind and her acuity is 20/200. Former
Iditarod champ Joe Runyan will be her trail
guide.
Rachael Scdoris, 22, was born in Oregon and
graduated from Redmond High School in 2003. She
says her occupation is dog musher. Rachael was born
with Congenital Achromatopsia, a rare vision
disorder. She is colorblind and her acuity is
20/200. She is extremely light sensitive. She is a
member of the United States Association of Blind
Athletes and the National Chiuldren's Oral Health
Foundation. Rachael had the honor of carrying the
Olympic Torch to the Salt Lake City Winter
Olympics. Rachael was honored by the Women’s
Sports Foundation in New York City as one of the
top women athletes in America. She served as
Captain of her high school track and cross country
teams. Rachael has been mushing since she was three
years old and finisher her first Iditarod in 2006.
She says, "I love everything about dog
mushing--working with dogs in the outdoors, the
competition, and the ability to use all of my past
experiences to improve my team. The Iditarod
embodies all these things." Rachael enjoys "sports
without balls," reading, singing and volunteer
work.
Scdoris Conquers the
Iditarod
Twenty-one year old Rachael Scdoris is the first
legally blind athlete to compete in the famed
Iditarod, the longest sled dog race in the world,
stretching 1,049 miles of arctic Alaskan interior
from Anchorage to Nome, with not one but twelve
dogs. March 18, 2996, after 12 days, 10 hours and
42 minutes on the trail, she finished in 58th place
and was 7th out of 20 rookies who started the
race.
Having endured tempuratures as low as -52
degrees Fahrenheit and wind speeds in excess of 60
miles per hour, Racherl took the worst that 1,100
miles of the Alaskan wilderness had to throw at her
and kept on mushing. We salute the determination
and skill that it took for Rachael to achieve her
dream. Way to go Rachael!
2005: Rachael Scdoris, 20, is a rookie
musher that was born in Oregon on February 1, 1985.
She has been racing sled dogs since she was three
years old, having been introduced to the sport with
rides in her father's sled bag at the tender age of
18 months. Rachael has been training and racing her
own team since she was eight. She turned "Sweet 16"
while running the International Rocky Mountain
Stage Stop Sled Dog Race in 2001.
After competing in numerous short and
mid-distance races, including The Atta Boy 300
Oregon World Cup sled dog race, managed by her
father Jerry Scdoris, Rachael has a dream of
running the Iditarod. Being a very competitive
person, her goal is to compete at the highest
levels of the sport. To that end she has focused
her ambition on the Iditarod, "The Last Great
Race".
Rachael's first run was made as one of the
youngest mushers to enter the Iditarod, and the
first legally blind musher to do so. Navigating
around the media may be as much of a challenge as
the course itself. In the past year, she has been
featured on National Geographic World, an ABC
Sports feature, USA Today, Teen Magazine, Animal
Planet, Web MDTV, Sports Illustrated for Women,
Seventeen Magazine and a recent issue of Time
Magazine's "Time for Kids". Closer to her own
ambitions, Rachael is also featured on one million
packages of Atta Boy dog food highlighting her
image, story and dogs.
Rachael is also a fiercely competitive
long-distance track and cross-country runner, a
fashion model, a talented soprano vocalist, and a
confident public speaker that graduated with a 3.5
GPA from Redmond High School. She earned her
varsity letter as a freshman in cross-country in
the fall, and acquired her varsity letter in track
the following spring. Later, she qualified for the
District Championship in both sports, running
mainly against older, sighted girls. Rachael was
ranked third nationally, in both the 1500 and 3000
meters by the United States Association of Blind
Athletes (the USABA).
She is a member of the United States Association
of Blind Athletes. Rachael had the honor of
carrying the Olympic Torch to the Salt Lake City
Winter Olympics. Rachael was honored by the Women's
Sports Foundation in New York City as one of the
top women athletes in America.
While Rachael has competed in stage stop races,
where dog teams travel a specific distance each
day, she has never run a continuous format such as
the 1100-mile Iditarod. Rachael has finished the
500 Mile Wyoming Stage Stop, The Atta Boy 300 in
Oregon, The Race to the Sky 350 in Montana and The
John Beargrease Marathon 400 in Minnesota.
Born with congenital achromatopia (color
blindness), Rachael has less than 20/200 vision and
can't see at all in bright light. She can see her
team and where the leaders are, but her vision is
one-dimensional. The Iditarod board of directors
has made accommodations by allowing Rachael to have
"visual interpreters" traveling ahead to provide
information on the trail and conditions as they
vary between checkpoints.
Her visual interpreter for the 2006 Iditarod
will be veteran Iditarod musher Tim Osmar. Visit
her new Web site at www.gorachaelgo.com
Source: images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/images/mushers/musher_scdorisr05.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/mushers/scdorisr.html&h=205&w=154&sz=7&tbnid=gnFi4Wr4jGQFDM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=75&hl=en&start=4&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Rachael%2BScdoris%2522%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
Rachael Scdoris, in the
beginning
Rachael Scdoris, who followed through on a
childhood dream of running the Iditarod, despite
being legally blind, has ended her first attempt
more than halfway into the race. Scdoris opted to
scratch at Eagle Island, one of the most remote and
often bleakest points in any Iditarod.
She made the decision at 5:37 p.m. Wednesday
based on the well being of her team, according to a
press release issued by race officials. The rookie
based in Bend, Ore., arrived at Eagle Island at
11:25 a.m. with 12 dogs. She was 66th - last place
- when she made the decision. The scratch had
nothing to do with her position in the race,
however. She and visual interpreter, Paul Ellering,
were on a pace to finish in adequate time. Scdoris
was having an increasingly difficult time getting
enough calories into her dogs and opted to scratch
for their benefit, said Race Marshall Mark Nordman.
Ellering decided to scratch at Eagle Island as
well.
Eagle Island exists only as a temporary tent
camp set up only for the Iditarod. It's location
actually shifts year to year, but it is roughly 60
miles from Grayling and about as far from Kaltag,
serving as a halfway point up the Yukon River with
drop bags, fuel and a warm tent. It is 701 miles
from Anchorage, and 421 miles from Nome.
Scdoris entered the Iditarod after more than a
year of sometimes exhausting discussions with the
Iditarod's board of directors. She was the first
handicapped dog driver to approach the Iditarod
seeking special arrangements in order to
participate in the race. Scdoris was born with
congenital achromatopsia, a non-degenerative
retinal condition that severely limits her central
vision to shadowy images. Her peripheral vision is
excellent. She has 20-200 vision, is near- and
far-sighted and color blind. Her vision has been
described as like looking through a pair of glasses
smeared with grease. The race organization waived
one rule for her and another dog team serving as
her visual interpreter. The two teams were allowed
to communicate via radio so the team in front,
Ellering, could warn her of approaching
hazards.
The pair traveled slowly at first, but
successfully negotiated the always-difficult Happy
River steps up to Rainy Pass, and then the Dalzell
Gorge down to Rohn. By the time they reached
Nikolai, the general opinion among mushers was that
Scdoris was an accomplished sled handler and should
finish the race. But this has been one of the most
grueling Iditarods in memory, and tiring for their
dogs. Teams crossing the finish line in Nome are
relieved to be done with it.
Source: images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/images/coverage_2005/cov05_mar17_01-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/coverage_2005/cov05_mar17_01.html&h=226&w=190&sz=12&tbnid=rJpTPYC3ckMOUM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=86&hl=en&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Rachael%2BScdoris%2522%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
Results
Rachael scratched on 3/13 after getting up to
62nd of 95 mushers in the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled
Dog Race
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