Quebec musher Annie Maro wins 2024 Open World Championship dog sled race

Annie Malo is a champion musher with nearly 30 years of experience.

But the Quebec resident admitted she was nervous about participating in her first Open World Championship sled dog race.

After a sleepless night, Friday’s opening run helped Maro and the team get used to the urban track and calmed their nerves. And on Sunday, she came back from a nearly one-minute deficit to become just the second woman to win the Open World Championship title.

“I couldn’t sleep at all,” she said. “A trail with people and moose is not the kind of route I’m used to. I was very nervous. I was happy that the first day was in the books and I knew where I was.”

Maro started 54 seconds behind Remy Coste, a Frenchman based in Sweden, but raced faster than Coste for the second day in a row to come from behind to win.

Knowing she had to make up almost every minute, she decided to focus on her race, even though she had the radio ready to receive reports on her competitors’ progress.

“I tried to prick my ear, but I was like, ‘No, just do what you like. Drive the dog,'” she said. “The team is doing really well. And I knew if I could keep that speed up to the finish line, I’d be fine.”

Coste looked nearly unbeatable on the first day, but his time of 1 hour, 23 minutes, 47 seconds was a whopping 1 hour, 23 minutes, 47 seconds, beating both Maro and 10-time winner Blaine “Buddy” Strieper, who finished third, by five minutes. It exceeded that.

But Maro erased that gap by more than four minutes on Saturday, winning by 23 seconds over Coste, who ran eight dogs, on Sunday. This puts her in the rare company of Roxie Wright, who has won this race four times, her last victory coming in 2017.

Wright helped Malo’s team as a handler over the weekend and was one of the first to congratulate the Canadian musher after the win.

“She was so excited,” Maro said of Wright’s reaction.

Maro’s three-day time was 4:32:59, while Coste finished in 4:33:22.

Rookie Malo was originally scheduled to race in Manitoba this weekend, but the race was canceled due to lack of snow, giving him the opportunity to race in the OWC for the first time.

But she’s no novice to exploring Alaska.

Her incredible run on the first day of the 75th Open North American Sled Dog Race in Fairbanks in 2021 broke that record, and she still holds it.

And she said once she got a taste of Anchorage’s open world championship course, it was all about the dogs.

“You know, we raise those dogs and we train those dogs,” she said. “At the end of the day, all I have to do is do my job to help them do their best and that’s always the same in every race.”

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Maro’s victory ended Strieper’s five-game winning streak and his bid to overtake George Atla as the race’s all-time champion. Last year, Strieper tied Atlas with 10 wins.

Strieper posted the second-fastest time on each of the first two days, and on Sunday he set the fastest time of 1 hour, 28 minutes, 40 seconds, 26 seconds faster than Malo.

He said midway through Saturday’s race he had fallen to nine minutes behind Coste. But he switched teams and made up for his deficit in five minutes. He caught up two more on Sunday, finishing within three minutes of Maro.

“They’re so good that I’m exhausted,” he said. “This is an extraordinary dog, an extraordinary competition and a great race.”

Strieper, a native of Fort Nelson, British Columbia, was hoping to make history with his 11th win over the weekend, but he’s looking at his accomplishments through a long lens.

“I’ve had five forever, but never got six,” he said. “Then I combined five in a row, 6-7-8-9-10. But from 2010 to 2018 I didn’t win. I hope it won’t be that long until the next match, but… I’m going to go home and learn and evaluate. I’m proud of the way I ran today and if I can come back and do that all three days, I think that’s going to be my best chance.”

open world championship dog sled race

Final result

1. Annie Maro, St. Zenon, Quebec, 4:32:59 (Day 1: 3rd place 1:29:09; Day 2: 1:34:44; Day 3: 2nd place 1:29:06 ); 2. Remy Coste, Rixele, Sweden, 4:33:22 (Day 1: 1st place 1:23:47; Day 2: 4th place 1:39:12; Day 3: 3rd place 1:30 :23); 3. Blaine Strieper, Fort Nelson, British Columbia, 4:35:44 (Day 1: 2nd place 1:28:51; Day 2: 2nd place 1:38:13; Day 3 : 1st place 1:28:40); 4. Jake Robinson, Bemidji, Minn., 4:44:32 (Day 1: 5th place 1:33:11; Day 2: 5th place 1:40:09; Day 3: 4th place 1:31:12); 5. Andy Hutten, Nenana, 4:45:59 (Day 1: 6th place 1:34:18; Day 2: 3rd place 1:38:20 ; Day 3: 5th place 1:33:21); 6. Greg Taylor, Fairbanks, 4:53:23 (Day 1: 4th place, 1:32:40; Day 2: 9th place, 1: 45:31, Day 3: 6th place, 1:35:12). 7. Marvin B. Koechlin, North Pole, 4:57:30 (Day 1: 9th place 1:37:10, Day 2: 7th place 1:43:00, Day 3: 7th place 1:37: 20). 8. Jess Moore, Bondurant, Wyoming, 4:59:36 (Day 1: 11th, 1:38:36, Day 2: 6th, 1:40:23, Day 3: 11th, 1:40:37). 9. Andrea Bond, Salcha, 5:00:03 (Day 1: 10th, 1:37:23, Day 2: 8th, 1:44:36, Day 3: 8th, 1:38 :04). 10. Michael Tetzner, Burg, Germany, 5:10:49 (Day 1: 7th, 1:35:24, Day 2: 12th, 1:53:50, Day 3: 13th, 1: 41:35). 11. Sean De Wolski, Fairbanks, 5:10:50 (Day 1: 13th place 1:43:26; Day 2: 10th place 1:46:55; Day 3: 10th place 1:40 :29). 12. Charlie Connor, Loon Lake, Saskatchewan, 5:17:12 (Day 1: 12th, 1:43:10, Day 2: 11th, 1:53:07, Day 3: 12th) , 1:40:55) ; 13. Frank Haberman, Clam Gulch, 5:26:36 (Day 1: 8th place, 1:37:05; Day 2: 13th place, 2:10:50 , Day 3: 9th place, 1:38:41).