Congratulations Rebecca!

By Sally O’Sullivan Bair

rebecca knight north american ifss usfssRebecca Knight of Basalt, Colorado, is the newly chosen North American Continental Director to join of the IFSS (international Federation of Sleddog Sports) council. She will serve a two-year term, replacing Russ Gregory of Alberta, Canada. The North American Continental Director is chosen from either Canada or the US, usually on an alternating basis.

This photojournalist turned musher and skijorer grew up in Ohio, receiving her B.A. Degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, with majors in Spanish and cinematography. She went on to work in her chosen field for several newspapers throughout the Midwest and East. A visit to Alaska in 1987 changed her life, however. She soon moved to the 49 th state and took up with the distance mushing crowd, among them Joe Redington, Sr., the “Father of the Iditarod.” Knight spent the next twenty years involved with the distance sector of mushing, including spending 24 days crossing Alaska by dog team on Joe Redington’s Iditarod Challenge trip. She worked various jobs from the tourism industry to a veterinary clinic doing wildlife rehabilitation.

More recently, this outstanding athlete has taken up skijoring and has represented the USA in sleddog World Championships in both North America and Europe. She now lives with her husband Vic and small kennel of canine partners in Colorado, where the open spaces provide endless trails and showcase nature’s beauty.

Knight’s goals and hopes for her tenure as the North American director are “to encourage the great forward momentum that North America has seen in dog powered sports recently and to continue striving for high quality and high standards in racing events and to ‘raise the bar,’ if you will…and last, but not least, to promote education and clinics that will further our sport.”

USFSS (US Federation of Sleddog Sports) is proud to count Rebecca Knight on its own board of directors and to have her represent North America to the IFSS.