Everyone knows about Jamaica’s athletic prowess. But who knew we’d also excel at winter sports? Last week Jamaican Newton Marshall completed the gruelling Iditarod 1,000-mile dog-sled race, deep in the heart of snowy Alaska. He has come a long way to be able to compete at a world-class level in the winter sport of dog sledding.

Marshall was born in 1983 in St Ann, Jamaica. In 2002 he was employed by Chukka Cove resort as a gardener. But he had always dreamed of working with horses, so he worked his way up until he became a tour guide for the River Valley Mountain horseback ride. The operations manager at Chukka Cove saw something special in Marshall and in 2005 he picked him to look after a trio of new dogs at Chukka Cove. It was then that Marshall met Rick Johnson, the owner of Ah-Regah Kennel in Minnesota. Rick seems to have been the first person to talk seriously to Marshall about dog sledding. Marshall describes it like this: “Rick started talking to me about dog sledding. I did not know what it was all about at the time. I watched them walk and talk to the dogs and wondered what they were doing. Rick hitched the dogs to a three-wheel cycle and asked me to run ahead and call to them in a special way. I was surprised when they responded.”

In 2006 Marshall found himself in Minnesota training with huskies. Minnesota was a shocking experience to Marshall. “I did not know what to expect. I was looking forward to working with experienced dogs and to seeing a lot of snow. I knew it would be cold, but I thought it would be like a rainy day in Jamaica. On the first day they pulled me on a snowmobile. It was my first time in the snow. It was freezing and very shocking.”

In 2007 Marshall went back to Chukka Cove, escorting visitors on the dog-sled tours. That year the operations manager had decided against training personally for the 2009 staging of the iconic Canadian dog-sledding race, the Yukon Quest. However, he sent Marshall in his place. So later that year Marshall was despatched to Yukon Territory in Canada in order to train with the three-time Yukon Quest winner Hans Gatt. His new taskmaster explained what the training would involve. “In addition to learning the skills required to mush a dog-sled team over long distances, Marshall will need basic dog-care and camping skills in order to survive and care for 14 dogs for 10 to 14 days, outside in the sub-arctic in the dead of winter.” Marshall rose to the challenge. Over the next three years he competed successfully in a series of dog-sledding races and became a favourite of the fans.

But the recent Iditarod Trail in Alaska has been the pinnacle of his dog-sledding career so far. It is the most famous dog-sledding race in the world and takes place in sub-zero temperatures. The race began as a mail-and-supply route to remote mining camps. It is over a thousand miles long and includes mountain ranges, frozen rivers, forests, desolate tundra and a coast swept by icy winds.

Marshall describes the race vividly: “The toughest moment, when I thought I was going to die was when we were up in the hills and it was windy and there was zero visibility. You could not see the dogs or the trail. You had to point your headlights at the reflectors on the trail in order to get the dogs to follow the reflectors to stay on the right course. The dogs took the wrong trail one time. We went into the deep snow up to my chest.”

Marshall suffered frostbite during the race but he never thought of quitting. He said, “You need to have a strong mind to do a 1,000-mile race. You need to be tough and you have to want to finish. You are risking your life going out in 50 degrees below and freezing parts of your body. It is a crazy thing to do. After you have finished, you can appreciate what you can do.” He added, “Seeing the people there for me and telling me I could do it made me see that I could finish this race.”

It seems that there is no sport at which Jamaicans cannot excel. Whether it is the athletic tracks of Europe or the snowy trails of Alaska, we bring that special something sporting fans adore.