Tough Athletes

By Lew Freedman

The phone rang at the home of long-distance dog musher Lance Mackey in the woods of Fox, Alaska, about 20 miles from Fairbanks.

“Can I speak to the second toughest athlete in sports?”

Laughter. “Speaking.”

That’s how it has gone at Mackey’s house recently. Call after call, chuckle after chuckle.

“We joke about it daily,” Mackey said.

Sports Illustrated compiled a list of what it called the “25 Toughest Athletes.”

Although he has never been known to wrap a golf club around a heckling fan’s neck, Tiger Woods was chosen No. 1. The guy ranked No. 2 was Mackey, who is very worthy of attention, but whose resume is not as well known as Woods’.

To attain his fame, Mackey won the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest dog-sled race and followed that up by winning the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race two weeks later in 2007. Those are the two most important races in his sport. No one had ever come close to capturing the double before. Then he did it all over again this February and March. As if the accomplishments were not enough, only a few years ago Mackey’s life had been threatened by cancer. Beating back cancer was its own 1,000-mile march.

No one suggests that Tiger Woods is not mentally tough. But he competes in sunny weather where one of the topics is the greens. Mackey competes in a slightly different environment, where blizzards, whiteouts and dangerous temperatures are the norm. He doesn’t display little checkmarks on his shirts—he wears parkas rated to minus-50.

The concept of toughness in sport makes for interesting debate. What defines toughness on the playing field? Certainly, mental toughness, will, determination, and a refuse-to-lose attitude play roles in all sports.

Still, when we think of toughness in sport we probably first think about ruggedness and physical power. There was a time when it was a generally accepted notion that the heavyweight champion was the toughest man in the world. And no one should overlook pro football defensive linemen, whose mission is to fend off other 300-pound linemen and separate ball carriers from the ball.

Somewhere the debate would cross the line between pure toughness and courage. Just this past week Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Doug Davis underwent thyroid cancer surgery. Leading up to the operation he took his regular turn in the rotation and was planning to immediately return to the rotation. That rates pretty highly on the toughness meter, doesn’t it?

Ideas are also formed about toughness based on what our comfort zone is. Any NHL goalie would have to be pretty tough to play what is probably the most demanding position in team sports, but some might think pitchers have it tougher.

Sports Illustrated did not overlook physical toughness, listing Ultimate Fighter Anderson Silva, Indianapolis Colt safety Bob Sanders , puckster Zdeno Chara and boxer Floyd Mayweather near the top of its rankings. But they seem more like routine tough guys compared to a Mackey, who not only braved the elements to win, but overcame significant outside obstacles as well.

It was suggested to Mackey, who does play a little bit of golf, perhaps Tiger Woods should try mushing in February in Alaska, on Mackey’s turf. Mackey said, “That might not be fair.”

So where does the twain meet between golf and mushing? Maybe a match in the neutral sport of arm-wrestling can be arranged to determine who is tougher.

“That might be one way to decipher it,” Mackey agreed.

(Lew Freedman is a Chicago-based sportswriter who has written several books on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race for Epicenter Press.)