The Anchorage ski jumper is a veteran of five Winter Olympics — three as a competitor and two as the coach of the U.S. women’s team. Alborn reigned as one of the top ski jumpers in the U.S. for nearly a decade. He won five national championships, posted three top-10 World Cup results and owned the U.S. distance record for sky-flying (221.5 meters) for more than 15 years.

Perhaps no other Alaskan has excelled in as many sports as Kelter. She starred in hockey, soccer and flag football at Chugiak High, was a dual-sport Division I athlete for the University of Wisconsin in hockey and soccer, and was a two-time Olympian in women’s 7s rugby. As a defenseman for the Wisconsin hockey team, Kelter made the all-tournament team while helping the Badgers win the 2011 NCAA championships; as the starting center midfielder for the soccer team, she led Wisconsin to the Sweet 16 in 2009. As a rugby player, Kelter is a force — in women’s 7s, she led Team USA to the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics and is one of the top players in team history; as a pro in women’s 15s, she was part of a Premiership league championship for Saracens of London.

The only woman to win the Yukon Quest, Zirkle was a perennial contender in the Iditarod with seven top-10 finishes in an eight-year span. She was the runnerup three years in a row (2012-14), gaining fans along the way by showing good sportsmanship and grace. Zirkle is a six-time winner of the Leonard Seppala Humanitarian Award, a coveted award decided by race veterinarians in recognition of outstanding dog care. Zirkle, of Two Rivers, retired in 2021 after 20 races.

A sit-skier from Palmer, Kurka won gold in the downhill and silver in the super-G at the 2018 Paralympics. He’s a three-time member of the U.S. Paralympic team, and in 2022 he placed fourth in the downhill despite breaking his arm and thumb in a training run. Before suffering a spinal cord injury in an ATV accident at age 13, Kurka was a champion youth wrestler.

A nordic skier from Norway who has made his home in Fairbanks for decades, Endestad won 13 U.S. national championships and captured the Great American Ski Chase six times during a long career that continued into his 40s. He competed at the 1984 Sarajevo Games and finished 18th in the men’s 50K race. In 1990, he swept all four men’s races at the U.S. national championships in Anchorage.

At 6-foot-4 and 400 pounds, Aiken was a giant in Native sports as both a competitor and a caretaker of the games’ traditions. He dominated strength events at the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics during a 26-year career, winning multiple titles in the Eskimo stick pull, Indian stick pull and the four-man carry. Aiken, of Barrow, cherished the history of Native sports, and after retiring from competition he dispensed knowledge as WEIO’s longtime master of ceremonies. A mentor and coach to hundreds, he died in 2015 at age 62.

Oleson, a sharpshooter from North Pole, is the career scoring leader for the UAF men’s basketball team and a veteran of 10 pro seasons in Europe. At UAF, he totaled 1,883 points in three seasons (2002-2005) and was a 2005 Division II All-American and a two-time Player of the Year in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Oleson, a 6-foot-3 guard, played in 150 EuroLeague games, most of them for teams from Spain, and finished his pro career with 918 points.

A 13-year veteran of the NHL, Dubinsky racked up 163 goals and 301 assists in 881 career games. He played his first six seasons with the New York Rangers and the final seven with the Columbus Blue Jackets, who rewarded him after two seasons with a six-year, $35.1 million extension. Dubinsky played youth hockey in Anchorage, junior hockey in Portland and made his NHL debut with the Rangers in 2006.

Lincoln was a rural Alaska basketball superstar who led Kotzebue to a Class 3A state championship before becoming the first Alaska Native to play basketball on scholarship at UAA (1993-97). A 5-foot-7 point guard, he made up for his lack of size with deft ball-handling and dazzling passing skills. He worked his way into the starting lineup and helped the Seawolves to three conference titles and three NCAA Tournament appearances. Lincoln’s 325 career assists ranks 7th all-time and his 85.4 percent free throw shooting ranks 6th all-time.

Hull, a Native Games icon from Fairbanks, pushed the women’s kicking records to new heights during her prime. Among her jaw-dropping efforts came at the 1989 World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, where she set a world record by hitting 7 feet in the tradition one-foot kick — a mark that has been equaled twice but never surpassed. In three decades of competition, Hull collected more than 100 medals. Among her honors are the 1989 Denali Award as Alaska’s Sportsperson of the Year and an Outstanding Contributor Award from WEIO.

A teaching pro who was for years the state’s premier player, Tracy laid the foundation of the tennis community in Alaska, particularly in Anchorage. She created tennis programs for kids and adults, put on scores of clinics and lured top professionals to Alaska to teach at camps.  She was director of tennis for The Alaska Club for more than a decade and reigned as the state’s top singles, doubles and mixed doubles player for even longer. In mixed doubles alone, she boasted more than 20 state championships with her partner and husband, Gregg Tracy. She moved to Anchorage in 1974 and 10 years later became the first Alaskan to play at the U.S. Open. She advanced to the 1984 women’s over-35 women’s doubles finals with partner Margaret Russo; they lost to Billie Jean King and Rosie Casals.

No Alaskan has placed higher at the NCAA Division I men’s wrestling championships than Byers, who finished third at 197 pounds for Oklahoma State at the 2012 NCAA Championships. The result capped a 28-4 senior season that included a Big 12 championship. Before college, Byers won four state titles at Chugiak High.

Alaska’s premier women’s mountain runner and trail runner for most of the 2000s, Marvin is a three-time Mount Marathon champion, a seven-time Equinox Marathon winner and an eight-time Crow Pass Crossing winner. She’s the all-time women’s win leader at both the Equinox and Crow Pass, and in 2022 she broke the 32-year-old Crow Pass women’s record by finishing the 22-mile wilderness run in a time of 3 hours, 25 minutes, 52 seconds.

The NFL offensive lineman from North Pole won a Super Bowl with Green Bay in 2010 and started 137 games in his nine-year career with the Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Miami Dolphins. Known for his toughness and durability, the 6-foot-4, 308-pound guard started 122 consecutive games. He was a first-team all-state lineman for North Pole before going to Boise State, where he was a two-time all-conference selection. Green Bay selected him in the second round of the 2006 draft.

Norris, of Fairbanks, is an elite cross-country skier and mountain runner who owns the Mount Marathon record and is a 10-time medalist at the U.S. cross-country national championships. He’s undefeated in four appearances at Mount Marathon and set the course record of 41 minutes, 26 seconds in 2016. Norris also holds course records the Bird Ridge and Alyeska Cirque mountain runs and is a two-time winner of the American Birkebeiner, the nation’s biggest cross country ski race.

One of the Iditarod’s most popular mushers, Jonrowe, of Willow, was also one of its most successful. She recorded 16 top-10 finishes, including 11 in a row from 1988-98, and finished second twice, in 1993 and 1998. Her public battle with breast cancer in 2002 made her an inspiration in Alaska and beyond, and the next year she mushed to 18th place in a field of 45 finishers. Jonrowe experienced other personal setbacks — including the loss of her home in a wildfire— and became a popular figure for the way she managed them.

Mattingly was the founder and lifeblood of the Anchorage Bucs baseball team. He started the team in 1980 as the Cook Inlet Bucs, and through his efforts the team graduated from Anchorage’s adult league to the Alaska Baseball League. He served as the Bucs’ general manager for 30 years — driving the team bus, answering phones at the office, watering and mowing the Mulcahy Stadium outfield and recruiting college players from across the nation. He saw 60 former Bucs make it to Major League Baseball.

Griffith is a pioneer of Alaska adventure racing whose lifetime pursuit of trekking and rafting has spanned thousands of miles and several decades. He’s a 17-time finisher of the arduous Alaska Wilderness Classic, and in the 1982 race he introduced packrafting, which has since become mainstream. In the 2008 race, he became the oldest finisher at age 80. Griffith, of Anchorage, has trekked some 10,000 miles in Alaska, Canada and beyond, and has recorded floating firsts in the Grand Canyon and other notable canyons.

Herron orchestrated one of the greatest moments in Alaska track and field history in 1985 when he ran 1:49.2 in the 800 meters, the fastest time in the nation by a high schooler that year. The Bartlett High grad went to the University of Arizona and won a Pac-10 championship in the 800 in 1987. He later became a highly successful prep cross country and track coach and founded the Alaska Running Academy.

Nix, a Haida Indian from Hydaburg, became Alaska’s first professional football player in the 1920s. He was a lineman who played for the legendary Hominy Indians of Oklahoma before and after a brief stint in the NFL that consisted of three games at guard with the 1926 Buffalo Rangers. In 1927, Nix was part of an undefeated Hominy team that defeated the New York Giants three weeks after the Giants had claimed the NFL championship.

Nayokpuk never won the Iditarod, but he earned unparalleled respect and admiration from fellow mushers for his toughness and kindness. Known as the Shishmaref Cannonball, the Inupiaq Eskimo was wildly popular in villages along the trail and was a role model throughout rural Alaska. Nayokpuk raced in 11 Iditarods, including the inaugural race in 1973, and recorded eight top-10 finishes. In 1983, at age 53, he finished fourth — five months after undergoing open-heart surgery.

A four-time Winter Olympian from Kasilof, Hakkinen was the country’s premier biathlete for more than a decade. His long career included 18 seasons of World Cup racing and 14 World Championships. Hakkinen competed in the 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010 Olympics, with his best finish coming in 2006 when he placed 10th in the 20-kilometer race. At the 1997 World Junior Championships, Hakkinen became the first American to win a gold medal.

One of the greatest Iron Dog drivers in Alaska history, Faeo won a record seven titles and posted a record 23 consecutive finishes in the 2,000-mile snowmachine race across Alaska. He was virtually unbeatable from 1986 to 1991, winning five of the six races. Faeo, of Wasilla, was a 13-time podium finisher in the Iron Dog, a nine-time Alaska Motor Mushers cross country champion, a six-time Talkeetna-to-Anchorage winner and an 11-time Alaska Calcutta champion.

The Finnish-born mushing star from the early 1900s was a three-time winner of the All Alaska Sweepstakes, the world’s first organized distance sled dog race. The race was 408 miles from Nome to Candle and back, and in 1910 Johnson set a record of 74 hours, 14 minutes, 37 seconds that stood until 2008. According to historical accounts, Johnson didn’t stop during his record run, which included a stretch when, snow-blinded, he strapped himself to his sled and relied on lead dog Kolyma, a husky that came from Siberia, to keep the team on the trail.

Clarke was one of the world’s top shot putters for several years, winning four NCAA champions at Arizona State and becoming the only Alaska to break the 70-foot barrier. He won a gold medal at the 2014 Pan Am Games and placed third at the 2015 U.S. championships with a person-best throw of 70-6. At Bartlett High, Clarke set two state records that have never been threatened — 192-3 in the discus and 71-3 in the shot put (set with a 12-pound shot; a 16-pound shot is used in college and beyond).

Messing is Alaska’s greatest figure skater, and the only one to compete at the Winter Olympics. As a youth he claimed a silver medal in the junior division at the U.S. national championships, but his career didn’t really take off until he joined Canada’s national team in 2014 (he has dual citizenship via his mother). Messing, of Anchorage, is a two-time Olympian for Canada and a two-time Canadian national champion. A fan favorite around the world for his athleticism and on-ice personality, Messing placed 11th at the 2022 Olympics and 12th at the 2018 Olympics. In his final competition before retiring at age 31, Messing placed seventh at the 2023 World Championships.

Cobb was a four-year starter for the Duke soccer team from 2011-14 and finished among the school’s all-time leaders in two categories — 11th in goals (25 in 78 games) and sixth in shots (219). She scored eight game-winners and recorded three multi-goal games for the Blue Devils. As a high school star for Chugiak High, Cobb scored 98 goals in three seasons and was a Parade All-American.

Griffin’s stellar basketball career made her a star on two continents. The University of Nebraska retired her jersey number as a reward for four fine years, and Australia has embraced her throughout a long professional career there. Griffin, a 6-foot-2 forward from Eagle River, enjoyed an epic senior season at Nebraska (20.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per game; first-team All-America; Big 12 Player of the Year) and was the third pick in the 2010 WNBA draft. She made the all-rookie team the next year for the Connecticut Suns, but her real success came in Australia, where she’s a four-time WNBL champ, a three-time Grand Prix MVP and the 2019 league MVP.

Weiland won a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics as a member of the U.S. women’s hockey team, capping an excellent career with the national team that also included four medals at the World Championships — gold in 2008 and 2009 and silver in 2004 and 2007. A defenseman from Palmer, Weiland enjoyed a trailblazing college career as a member of Wisconsin’s inaugural women’s team. She earned All-America honors as a junior, when she scored 49 points in 35 games, and was an all-conference pick all four years.

One of the greatest runners in Alaska history, Klinnert never lost a cross country race in high school and set a track record at 3,200 meters that stood for 28 years. The Kodiak star went on to become a three-time NCAA Division I All-American at Northern Arizona, where she set conference and school records in the 10-K and was inducted in the school’s Hall of Fame in 2021. Waythomas qualified for the Olympic Trials in the marathon and 10-K, and in 1995, won a bronze medal in the marathon at the World University Games.

A star middle blocker at Wasilla High, Rosen went on to become an NCAA All-American at Ohio State before making her mark as a Division I coach. Rosen, one of the first Alaskans to play Division I volleyball, played four stellar seasons at Ohio State, starting her career as the 1988 Big Ten freshman of the year and ending it as an All-American as a senior in 1991. She helped the Buckeyes to two Big Ten conference championships and three NCAA Tournaments and was a leader on the team that made it to the 1991 national semifinals. Her 1,428 kills remain the most by an Alaskan at the NCAA Division I level and her 1,341 digs are No. 2 among Alaskans. After college she spent 24 years coaching the University of Michigan volleyball team — her husband, Mark, was the head coach and she was the associate head coach. Together they took the Wolverines to 19 NCAA Tournaments. In 2023 Rosen became the head coach at Fresno State and led the Bulldogs to the Mountain West Conference and their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002.

Jacoby shocked the world at the 2020 Summer Olympics, where the 17-year-old high school swimmer from Seward used a late burst of speed to capture the gold medal in the 100-meter women’s breaststroke. Jacoby returned home with two Olympic medals — she added a silver medal in the women’s medley relay — in time to begin her senior year at Seward High. From there she went to the University of Texas, where her 2022-23 freshman season included an NCAA title in the 100 breaststroke and 17-18 national age-group records in the 100 breaststroke (57.54 seconds) and 200 breaststroke (2:04.32).

In his prime, no Alaska runner was faster than Dunbar. From the 800 to 5,000 meters, his times from the early 1990s were the standard and still rank among the state’s all-time bests. He was the 1993 U.S. indoor mile champion with a PR of 4:00.58, an Alaska record that stood for 20 years until his son, Trevor, broke it. A former standout at Bartlett High who competed collegiately at Oregon, Dunbar won a record 10 titles in the Heart Run 5-K in Anchorage and built a stalwart running program at Kodiak High School as head coach.

Emmons competed at four Summer Olympics in rifle shooting and won three medals — gold at the 2004 Athens Games, silver at the 2008 Beijing Games and bronze at the 2012 London Games. Emmons was lauded for his good attitude after last-shot gaffes cost him two other Olympic medals. At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, he won eight NCAA riflery championships (four team, four individual).

Hutchinson made history at the 2006 Alaska high school wrestling championships when she became the first girl in the United States to win a state title while competing against boys. Her victory in the 103-pound division capped a 45-4 season that included 33 wins via pins. After graduating from Skyview High, Hutchinson became a four-time All-American and a three-time collegiate women’s champion at Oklahoma City University.

A mainstay of Fairbanks basketball for four decades, Griffin held the UAF scoring record for 36 years and as a coach guided high school teams to 33 state tournaments in a 35-year span. A Nanook from 1966-69, Griffin scored 1,682 career points with a single-game high of 43 points and was the first UAF player to have his jersey number retired. He spent 30 years at Lathrop High, coaching basketball and other sports, and also coached at West Valley and Eielson.

Thompson was a sixth-round draft pick who parlayed grit and perseverance into an NHL career that spanned nearly 20 years. The blue-collar center didn’t score a lot of points but he won the respect of teammates and fans by doing the little things — killing penalties, winning face-offs and working hard. He retired at age 38 in 2023 after 844 regular-season games and 86 Stanley Cup playoff games. He suited up for nine different teams and finished with 65-99 scoring totals and a 52.9 career face-off percentage. Thompson left Anchorage as a 16-year-old to play Tier I major-junior hockey and was 18 when he became the 183rd pick in the 2003 NHL draft. He was 24 before he became a regular player in the NHL, and carved out a career as a fourth-line forward. He played for Team USA at two World Championships, winning a bronze medal at the 2013 tournament.

Dreyer was the first Alaska woman to play hockey at the Olympics, where she earned a bronze medal as a goaltender for Team USA at the 2006 Games in Italy. At the 2004 World Championships, she helped the Americans claim the silver medal and earned a spot the all-tournament team. A standout for the Chugiak High boys hockey team, Dreyer was a four-year starter at Brown University and helped the Bears to an NCAA runnerup finish in 2002.

Klever, of Anchorage, was the first Alaskan to be drafted by an NFL team, to play in the modern-day NFL, to score a touchdown in the NFL and to appear in the playoff game in the NFL. He spent five seasons (1983-87) with New York Jets, who converted him from running back to tight end. He started 25 of 65 games and caught 46 passes for 514 yards and three touchdowns. At the University of Montana, Klever left as the all-time leading rusher with 2,228 yards. At West High, he led the Eagles to a state title in 1975 and was twice named all-state at quarterback.

Roxy Wright is the only woman to win the Fur Rondy Open World Championship Sled Dog Race in Anchorage and was the first woman to claim the Open North American Championship in Fairbanks. She won each prestigious race four times, including a sweep of both titles at age 66 after having retired from competitive racing more than two decades earlier. The daughter of legendary musher Gareth Wright, Wright also won Europe’s Alpirod in 1990.

Hebard was a three-time Alaska Player of the Year at West Valley, a four-year starter at Oregon and a 2021 WNBA champion with the Chicago Sky. At Oregon, Hebard became the 12th woman in Pac-12 history to amass more than 2,000 career points. A 6-ffot-4 forward, she was named to the all-Pac-12 team in four consecutive seasons and was an All-America pick in her final season. Chicago made Hebard the No. 8 pick in the 2020 WNBA draft.’

Patterson is a two-time Olympian in cross-country skiing who registered the best result by an American man by placing eighth in the 50-kilometer race at the 2022 Winter Olympics. At the same Olympics, he placed 11th in the skiathlon. Patterson, of Anchorage, is also a top mountain runner who owns eight wins and the course record at the Crow Pass Crossing. His time of 2 hours, 50 minutes, 2 seconds in 2021 knocked nearly 5 minutes off the old Crow Pass Crossing record.

Rash is arguably Alaska’s all-time best bowler, the winner of 17 Professional Bowling Association titles and the 2011-12 PBA Player of the Year. The Anchorage man has rolled 30 perfect games of 300 and has pocketed $1.46 million in career earnings since going pro in 2005 after a successful college career at Wichita State.

One of Alaska’s first hockey players to make it on the national scene, the Anchorage winger starred at the University of Minnesota, played for Team USA at the World Championships and played professionally in seven countries. During the 1981-82 season at East High, he set the state’s single-season scoring record with 104 points. The next season he set a U.S. Hockey League scoring record with 60 goals and 122 points in 48 games with the Dubuque (Iowa) Fighting Saints. At Minnesota, he turned in a 31-goal season in 1986-87, which remains the most for an Alaskan in a single season of Division I hockey.

A multi-sport star in Sweden, Johanson came to Anchorage in the early 1950s and became part of the burgeoning cross-country ski scene. He earned spots on the 1956 and 1960 U.S. Olympic teams and then coached the national biathlon team at Fort Richardson for several years. He won six straight Mount Marathon titles from 1954-59) and was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1975.

Rhea was a high school basketball standout in Juneau, starred at Oregon State and made it big at the pro level as an executive — she’s the general manager of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. Rhea, a 5-foot-11 guard, was the Alaska Player of the Year for Juneau-Douglas in 2005 and 2006 and was a two-time all-Pac 10 honorable mention pick at Oregon State. She joined the Storm in 2015 as a video coordinator and quickly advanced, becoming general manager in 2021 at age 31.

One of Alaska’s finest distance runners, Dunbar was the first Alaskan to break the 4-minute mile barrier with a time of 3:59.06 in 2013. He was an eight-time NCAA All-American in track and cross country for Oregon and Portland and a six-time state champion for Kodiak High (three times in track; three times in cross country).

Harper, an Athabascan from interior Alaska, was the first person to set foot on the 20,310-foot summit of Denali, North America’s highest peak. He was 20 years old when he joined Hudson Stuck’s 1913 Denali Expedition, and Stuck credited Harper’s skills and leadership for the team’s success. Harper was a skilled mountaineer, dog sled driver, boatsman, marksman and hunter. In 1918, he was among those who perished on the Princess Sophia when the ship sank en route to Juneau. Harper, 25, was traveling with his wife to Philadelphia, where he had been accepted to medical school.

Bowman, a defensive back from Anchorage, spent eight years in the NFL, six of them with the Chicago Bears. A fifth-round draft pick out of Nebraska, Bowman appeared in 99 NFL games, totaling 205 tackles, 13 interceptions, six fumble recoveries and three touchdowns. As a two-sport star at Bartlett High, Bowman helped the Golden Bears to two state basketball titles and one state football title. As a senior, he was the Alaska Player of the Year in football and a first-team all-state pick at three positions (defensive back, kick returner, utility player).