March 17, 2005

• Either / Or

  Either the little blind dog driver from Oregon realized it would be
  just too much work and hardship to try to get to Nome before the
  alloted time expires (back-of-the-pack mushers have a limited time to
  finish before checkpoints are closed after the race is won), OR she
  felt she had already milked the event for all the publicity and
  attention it was worth, OR her father decided it was time to cut their
  losses and skip out, OR [insert your own gratuitous speculation here].

  Rachael Scdoris and her minder/keeper/seeing-eye-musher/”visual
  interpreter” Paul Ellering scratched at Eagle Island shortly after
  Robert Sorlie won.  Now I wonder.  They must have known
  within a few days of starting that they had no chance to win
  the race.  Unless that whole crew is way out of touch with reality
  (a real possibility), they knew it before the race started.  So
  what happened, I wonder? 

  In public statements she has always said it was her ambition to
  complete the 1,100 mile Last Great Race.  Now it looks as if she
  is going to content herself with having bullied her way into the race
  on her own twisted terms by threatening a lawsuit under the Americans
  with Disabilities Act, and hogging the international spotlight for ten
  days as dozens of real-life mushers went to Nome.

  Her father, who last year did all the talking for her, must have
  realized from the media criticism he received (more than one outlet
  called him a “stage mother”), that he’d better yield center stage to
  her.  We’ve seen and heard nothing from him up here this
  year.  However, it appears unlikely that Rachael has been speaking
  for herself.  She has an agent.  She declined several
  invitations for local talk shows, reading prepared statements over the
  phone instead.  On camera during the race, she appealed for
  sympathy by showing her ouchies, but if she had much to say not many
  media outlets (at least none of the ones I’ve been following) saw fit
  to broadcast or quote her words.

  Doug Swingley, another visually impaired musher, finished yesterday
  about 5 PM, in fourteenth place.  Doug has a reputation as an
  honest man.  He said that Rachael can see as well as he can, and I
  am inclined to believe him.  There were a number of times out on
  the trail when she was as much as half an hour or more ahead of her
  guide.  It’s quite possible she could have entered and finished
  the race on the same terms as every other team, but that wouldn’t have
  gotten her all that attention and publicity for her book.

  Some of the more gushingly delusional foreign (Outside of Alaska)
  reporters have referred to her efforts as inspirational.  Oh,
  Heaven forfend!  Please!  This is not a role model I’d like
  to see the youth of the world emulating.  Let’s put it in the
  Olympic context:  faster, higher, stronger.  The idea is to
  challenge oneself to excel, not to try to bring the entire game down to
  one’s level.  Some inspired beings had the vision to create the
  Special Olympics.  Maybe Rachael’s father should be working to
  organize a Visually-Impaired Iditarod.
  
  I’ll be back with a few more gleanings from musher interviews I’ve
  heard, the details on how the women did (right now, Harmony Barron is
  hanging in there at 30th place), and the final word on who wins the Red
  Lantern.  For now, I have to get ready to go to town.  It’s
  my turn to drive the rehab van to the NA meeting tonight, and I have to
  air up my tire and all that before I can get on the road.  Seeya
  later.

  • 2:00 pm
  • 4 Comments