Editor's note: This story has been updated with a statement from the organizer of the Mongol Derby.
Dede Anders was supposed to set off on the adventure of a lifetime Wednesday, racing 620 miles across the Mongolian Steppe in the 2024 Mongol Derby, billed as the toughest and longest horse race on the planet.
Instead, she became sick and couldn’t start the race.
Then she was shocked when race organizers didn’t help her with medical care and instead drove her eight hours from the race start and left her stranded in a hotel in Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar. It was up to Anders to find her way to get back to Wyoming.
Anders said support from organizers of the Mongol Derby has been minimal, at best.
"I booked it online from base camp," she told Cowboy State Daily about making arrangements to get home to Wyoming. "That's about all they helped me with. Now I'm stuck here, and they couldn't give a crap."
Sick At The Starting Line
Anders, a former medic in the U.S. Army with a doctorate in medical science and emergency medicine from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, wasn’t even supposed to be in this year’s race. She was on the waitlist for the 2025 Mongol Derby.
When another rider dropped out, she was invited to be in the race a year earlier than she’d planned.
She arrived in Ulaanbaatar on Aug. 1 and was taken to the derby's starting point, an eight-hour journey from the capitol, with the other riders. Two days before Wednesday’s start, she became seriously ill.
"It's a lot of gastrointestinal stuff," Anders said. "I was throwing up and stuff like that. Two medics looked at me. They told me I needed nothing but did nothing for me. They told me to ride it out."
Anders recognized that while she wasn't "critically ill," she wasn't well enough to embark on a 620-mile race across Mongolia. She communicated this with the Mongol Derby's race director, who goes by Katherine.
"Katherine came to my yurt and talked to me at least twice," she said. "I told her I was sick both days."
After communicating that she couldn't ride, the race directors summoned a driver to take Anders back to Ulaanbaatar. It was a long, agonizing journey that ended with her alone in the capital.
"They put me in a vehicle for eight hours sick with a GI bug, with a driver who barely spoke English," she said. "I had to use Expedia from base camp to book a hotel, had the driver stop in the city and get my passport so I could finally check into the hotel."
Lack Of Care
As of Wednesday, Anders told Cowboy State Daily she’s still struggling with the illness.
The first flight she could get leaves Mongolia on Aug. 11, but will only get her to Seattle.
"I had to call home and have my boyfriend book a flight for me because I didn't have cellphone reception," she said. "Seattle is the closest I could get. I just want to get back to the U.S."
Anders was frustrated by the lack of care she received. Despite the claims of "an international team of highly experienced medics" to deal with medical emergencies along the route, Anders said her medical treatment at base camp was lacking.
"One of the medics didn't even touch me or ask me any questions," she said. "The other one took my pulse for a couple of seconds. They didn't take my vitals, didn't ask if I was diabetic or what medications I was taking. All they told me was it would pass in 24 hours."
The only thing the organizers of the Mongol Derby did, according to Anders, was arrange for the ride back to Ulaanbaatar. She's been alone since then and hasn't heard anything from them.
"I was too ill to get on a horse for 620 miles," she said. “But I was also too ill to get in a car for eight hours and be dumped off into a city without a passport or a flight home. I've reached out to them by email and stuff, and I haven't received a response."
Anders's photo and rider profile have been removed from the Riders of 2024 page on the Mongol Derby's website.
Derby Debacle
Anders' brief experience on the Mongolian Steppe wasn't romantic or exciting. She described it as "kind of a mess" and "not very organized."
"I wake up at 1:30 in the morning to throw up in the Mongolian Steppe, and I hear Miley Cyrus's ‘Party in the U.S.A.’ blasting and everybody's drunk. I told the race director that if I wanted to be exposed to Miley Cyrus blasted at 1:30 in the morning, I would have gone to any trailer park in Wyoming."
The biggest question is whether there is any chance of reimbursement. Anders spent a lot of money to enter the Mongol Derby and get to Mongolia, which makes the lack of treatment she received even more frustrating.
"I paid around $30,000 to go over for this thing," she said. "My entry fee alone was almost $17,000, and I didn't even get my blood pressure taken when I was sick."
Her primary focus is getting well enough for her flight back to the United States. She doesn’t care now about missing out on the Mongol Derby, especially after her ordeal at the starting line.
"I work in the ER, and I have my doctorate in emergency medicine," she said. "You couldn't swing a cat and hit a medic over there. I don't know what the holdup was, but I was definitely blown off for whatever reason.”
Organizers Say She Wasn't 'Abandoned'
In a statement to Cowboy State Daily in response to Anders' allegations of her treatment by the Mongol Derby, the organizer of the event denies her claims.
“We are really sorry that Diana Anders felt the need to withdraw from the race yesterday,” says John Grigg, CEO for The Equestrianists, which organizes and runs the Mongol Derby, in the July 8 statement. “Our team works really hard to help as many riders as possible reach the finish line.
“We wish Diana the speediest of recoveries as a gastrointestinal bug is certainly unpleasant. Our primary responsibility is to provide emergency medical support to all our competitors, we strive to go above and beyond for the contestants' health and wellbeing. We stand by our team’s actions and by our medic’s assessment of her condition as we supported Diana in her decision to withdraw from the race.”
He said the event’s medical staff provided prompt and prudent care for Anders and “advised Diana to rest, stay hydrated, consider electrolytes and remain under their medical care so they could continue to monitor her and treat symptoms if they got worse.”
Instead, “Diana chose to discharge herself from our medics’ care and did not seek further treatment. She decided to retire from the race and requested a lift back to the capital city, which we arranged, taking her to the hotel of her choice.
“In case of a serious injury that requires immediate medical evacuation, we keep hold of all contestant passports in a secure safe. A member of staff then took Diana's passport to her enroute to her hotel for her convenience."
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
