Apayauq Reitan is an Iñupiaq dog musher from Norway. She participated in the

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Iditarod The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod (), is an annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska in early March. It travels from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers and a team of between 12 and 16 dogs, of which at leas ...

as a rookie, finishing in 28th place in 12 days, 5 hours, 15 minutes, and 17 seconds. She also ran the

Yukon Quest The Yukon Quest, formally the Yukon Quest 1,000-mile International Sled Dog Race, is a sled dog race scheduled every February since 1984 between Fairbanks, Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon, Whitehorse, Yukon, switching directions ...

that year, also as a rookie. In 2022, she became the first openly

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woman A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...

to compete in the

. She is a citizen of both Norway and the United States. She is the subject of ''Apayauq'', a 2023 short documentary film by Zeppelin Zeerip. The film won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the 2023

Inside Out Film and Video Festival The Inside Out Film and Video Festival (formerly, Inside Out Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival), also known as the Inside Out LGBT or LGBTQ Film Festival, is an annual Canadian film festival, which presents a program of LGBT-related film. Th ...

.Valerie Complex
"InsideOut 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival Announces 2023 Award Winners"
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'', June 6, 2023.

Early life

Apayauq was born 1997 in Trondheim, Norway. She often spent time travelling between the communities of Narjordet and

Kaktovik, Alaska Kaktovik (; , ) is a city in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States. The population was 283 at the 2020 census. History Until the late nineteenth century, Barter Island was a major trade center for the Inupiat and was especially import ...

. She started mushing at age four at her family's tourism kennel, Alaskan Husky Tours. She changed her name to remove her Norwegian/English boy name after she had

come out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

to her family. After doing so, she received her ''tavluġun'', traditional Iñupiaq chin tattoo. She came out publicly on March 8, 2021,

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive righ ...

Organized Mushing

Apayauq started organized mushing at age 15, when she ran the , later running it at age 16. Then, in 2017, she ran some more races, including the Kobuk 440. Her dad, , finished the

, after which Apayauq took the family's dogs back home. In 2019, Apayauq, then about 21, became the third person to complete the Iditarod and Yukon Quest as a rookie in the same year. Apayauq became the first openly

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

to compete in the Iditarod in 2022. She is the second openly transgender athlete to compete in the race, following Quince Mountain, a

trans man A trans man or transgender man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identi ...

who competed in 2020. She won the red lantern in 37th place in 13 days, 8 hours, 39 minutes, and 13 seconds. During the Iditarod, Apayauq criticized the Alaskan school sports ban on transgender girls. Julie Smyth, another Iñupiaq woman, was also opposed to the ban, as Iñupiaq culture was more accepting of

identities, stating it is "common in many communities to be transgender".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reitan, Apayauq 21st-century Alaska Native people 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American sportswomen 21st-century Inuit people 21st-century Inuit women 21st-century Native American women Alaska Native women American transgender sportspeople American transgender women Dog mushers from Alaska American Inuit women Inupiat people LGBTQ Native Americans LGBTQ people from Alaska Living people Native American sportswomen Norwegian LGBTQ sportspeople Norwegian sportswomen Norwegian transgender women Transgender sportswomen Year of birth missing (living people) Women dog mushers American LGBTQ sportswomen