Nine-time NFR qualifier Richmond Champion to retire after Calgary Stampede
Richmond Champion, a nine-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo bareback rider, announced his retirement from PRORODEO after a 15-year run would come after the Calgary Stampede beginning July 3.
Champion, 33, said the decision to hang up his chaps didn’t come easy. But the grind of the PRORODEO season began to take its toll, and his love for the sport began to fade.
“I guess I was just kind of starting to enjoy it less,” Champion told the PRORODEO Sports News. “It’s worth it until it’s not. I think it just took me a little while to realize that maybe it wasn’t worth it to me.”
Champion said a conversation with a group of kids at a school in Miles City, Mont., about his purpose every time he got on the back of a bucking horse opened his eyes.
“You have to have your why,” Champion said. “And it got me thinking, ‘What’s my why?’ I don’t feel like I owe rodeo anything, and it doesn’t owe me anything. Outside of a gold buckle, it’s given me everything I wanted. So it kind of came down to that and some long conversations with my wife. I think the Fallon (Nev.) and Red Bluff (Calif.) week. I drove home and had more concrete thoughts about it.”
Champion burst onto the bareback riding scene in 2011. While on his permit, he won key rodeos, including the Mesquite (Texas) Pro Rodeo Series and qualified for the Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo.
He finished 32nd in the world standings in his first full season as a PRCA card holder, earning $26,176. In 2014, three years into his professional career, he qualified for his first NFR, winning Round 5 with an 88.5-point ride PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year Dirty Jacket. He also won Round 7 that year and placed in four other rounds. He was third in the world to end the season and second in the NFR average.
Champion went on to qualify for the NFR from 2016-21, and again in 2023-24. His best finish came in 2017 when he was second in the world. The Stevensville, Mont., cowboy battled through injuries during his career, including one that kept him out most of the 2022 season. In 2021, he was inducted into the Tarleton State Rodeo Hall of Fame.
Champion won five career rounds at the NFR.
Retirement will provide Champion the opportunity to focus on his family, spending more time with his wife, Paige, their 3-year-old son, Forrest, and the baby they are expecting in October.
He knows his final run in Calgary will be emotional. But win or lose, it will be enjoyable.
“I can’t think of a better place to hang it up than Calgary,” said Champion about the storied rodeo he won in 2017 and 2018.
-PRCA
