PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Dan Dehlin, Downwind Sports -OR- Libby Riddles
Phone: (906) 226-7112 (907) 235-2997

DOWNWIND SPORTS PRESENTS IDITAROD LEGEND LIBBY RIDDLES

    MARQUETTE (October 11, 2005) – Momentum Premium Athletic Dog Food/Dr. Tim's Pet Food Company and Downwind Sports will present Iditarod racer and history-maker Libby Riddles October 23, 2005 at 7:00 p.m. in the Peter White Public Library Community Room. There is no charge for attendance.

"LIBBY DID IT!" This was the headline plastered across the front page of the Anchorage Times. On Wednesday, March 20, 1985, Libby Riddles made history. She became the first woman to win the grueling 1,049-mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race, after a daring move across Norton Sound in a deadly blizzard.

The feat captured the attention of the nation. She soon appeared in magazines of all kinds - from Sports Illustrated to Vogue, as well as numerous newspapers around the world.

In addition to her victory, she was named the 1985 Sportswoman of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation and honored by the Iditarod veterinarians with the 1985 Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award for her humane treatment of her dogs.

Today, Riddles continues to breed and train sled dogs and competes in races across the country and around the world. When she's not training, she's promoting her favorite sport, inspiring others at speaking engagements, or writing. Riddles now has three books out, "Race Across Alaska", "Danger the Dog Yard Cat" , and the new release, "Storm Run". She also helped produce an Iditarod school curriculum.

In the spring of 1993, she was hired as the Sled Dog Coordinator for the Steven Segal movie, "On Deadly Ground" which was filmed in Alaska. This added to her already extensive television and film experiences which has involved working with ABC, HBO, ESPN, NFL films and the local Alaska television stations.

Riddles was born in Madison Wisconsin. She grew up in Washington State and Minnesota, and moved to Alaska at age 16. She homesteaded in a remote area of western Alaska, and lived for six years in an Inupiat village in Northern Alaska. Her love of animals evolved into a recreational interest in sled dogs, and later, a passion for sled dog racing and a monumental victory in the Iditarod, the "Last Great Race On Earth."

Libby currently lives in Homer, Alaska, and has a kennel of 37 racing sled dogs. After three summers working in Juneau developing the number one rated heli-mushing sled dog tour, she is now one of the main lecturers for Princess Cruises, spreading the word about Dog Mushing.

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