The Alaska Sports Hall of Fame will be receiving four new faces soon, as iconic mushers Martin Buser and Jeff King, as well as World Eskimo Indian Olympics icon Nicole Johnston and mountaineering legend Vern Tejas, will be inducted into the Class of 2017. It is scheduled to be the 11th class to head into the Hall of Fame.
In the “event” category, the Hall of Fame will be inducting the Fur Rendezvous World Championship Sled Dog Race.
Buser, a Big Lake musher, is a four-time champion of the 1,000-mile Iditarod sled dog race and held the speed record at one point in his career, finishing in a time of 8 days, 22 hours, in 2002, a fast time which stood for nine years.
King is also a four-time Iditarod champion, but also has wins in many other events, such as the Yukon Quest and Kuskokwim 300.
Johnston has won more than 100 medals in major Native Games competitions such as WEIO, the Native Youth Olympics and the Arctic Winter Games. Johnston learned the games in Nome and continued on to become an ambassador of the sport.
Tejas became the first person to successfully complete a solo winter summit of 20,320-foot Denali in 1988.
The three-day Fur Rondy sprint race dates back to 1946 and features many of the world’s best sprint mushers racing by cheering crowds that pack Anchorage’s streets and trails.
