Tim O’Connell is the No. 2 ranked bareback rider in the world. He was sidelined with an injury that caused him to miss the last month of the 2021 rodeo season.
In Lovington, O’Connell broke his tailbone in just the right way that it was a season ending injury. He had surgery and is currently rehabbing and recovering. By the middle of November, he will hopefully be back on a bucking horse.
At the 2020 Wrangler National Finals in Arlington, O’Connell barely missed his fourth world championship when Kaycee Feild came out on top after a reride in the tenth round. To say O’Connell is coming back to Vegas with a fire under him is an understatement.
“It took me a while to find my motivation to get back but when I found it, I was ready to roll… I just got that feeling back that I’m ready to be a four-time world champion in my mind and in my heart,” O’Connell said.
A year of great bareback rides for O’Connell including tying the world record on Gun Fire at the Riggin Rally and putting on a show and getting the win at the Calgary Stampede. It was a season full of highs for O’Connell and he’s ready to go back to the NFR for his eighth year in a row hunting for his fourth world title.
