Rick Swenson, sometimes known as the "King of the Iditarod", (born 1950 in Willmar, Minnesota), is an American dog musher who has won the 1,049-mile (1688.2 km) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across the U.S. state of Alaska more times than any other competitor. He won five times, in 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, and 1991, and is the only person to win in three separate decades. He won his first Iditarod race at the age of 27.Swenson competed in the Iditarod for the first time in 1976, placing 12th.