PUEBLO, Colo. – The 2023 PBR World Finals are just 16 days away, set to take over Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 12-21.
Throughout the PBR’s history, the World Finals have provided us with legendary rides, incredible comebacks, moments we’ll never forget, and riders who etch their names in the record books.
In less than a month, another rider will lift the World Championship trophy, joining the ranks of the elite. But until then, let’s look back on the champions of the last five years as we wonder what history awaits us in Fort Worth.
Swearingen thankful to win World Championship with help from guardian angel (2022)
LAS VEGAS – Carrie Swearingen had the oversized $1 million makeshift check with her son’s name emblazoned across it in one hand while she shook her other hand in pure amazement.
“This is just so surreal,” the proud mother exclaimed while watching her 22-year-old son, Daylon Swearingen, lift the Jerome Robinson Cup high above his head moments after clinching the 2022 PBR World Championship inside Dickies Arena on May 22.
Daylon’s 6-for-8, winning performance at the 2022 PBR World Finals helped him fend off World Champions Jose Vitor Leme and Kaique Pacheco and perennial world title contender Joao Ricardo Vieira in one of the closest World Championship races in PBR history. Swearingen finished 442.49 points ahead of Pacheco in the world standings.
Many would have considered Swearingen the underdog at the start at the seven-day World Finals, but he quickly proved he was never going to back down in pursuit of his first gold buckle, and his family certainly knew how determined Daylon was in his pursuit of PBR history.
His aunt Lorry Venetta recalled that this was a moment Daylon used to draw pictures of when he was 5 years old growing up in North Carolina.
“He would sit there and draw that trophy in the center of an arena for hours,” Lorry said with a smile.
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Frustration, doubt and worries were never an option for Leme during historic second World Championship season (2021)
LAS VEGAS – Jose Vitor Leme had a towel on his forehead and his face could not hide the excruciating pain he was in as he was propped up on a table inside the PBR Sports Medicine room at T-Mobile Arena.
Leme had to be carried to the room by the sports medicine staff after riding Top Shelf for 91.25 points in Round 5 of the 2021 PBR World Finals. Thirteen hours earlier, when he rode WSM’s Jive Turkey for 92.5 points in Round 4, the No. 1 bull rider in the world had aggravated a core muscle injury that kept him out of the final five events of the regular season, and his injury had gotten significantly worse on Championship Sunday.
As he laid on the table with a bag of ice wrapped around his right groin waiting to learn if he had clinched a second consecutive World Championship, Leme, barely able to speak, looked up at Dr. Tandy Freeman and smiled slightly.
“Sorry for having to make you work today, doc,” Leme said before chuckling.
Leme may have been in agonizing pain, yet even in this moment he didn’t appear worried or concerned one bit.
He was only thinking about finishing out his goal of becoming the second rider in the PBR’s 28-year history to win back-to-back World Championships.
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A humble path to gold buckle greatness for 2020 World Champion Jose Vitor Leme (2020)
ARLINGTON, Texas – Jose Vitor Leme climbed into a white golf cart in the bowels of AT&T Stadium just before 11 p.m. on Saturday night and grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket.
The newly minted World Champion’s iPhone would not stop buzzing as the golf cart hummed its way toward the ramp that exits the home of the Dallas Cowboys onto East Randol Mill Road.
Leme let out a laugh and shook his head in disbelief.
“This is crazy,” he said, looking down at his phone. “So many people are messaging me. I can’t keep up.”
Leme turned his head toward the left and peered inside the arena, giving himself one more glance at where he had just ridden Woopaa for 95.75 points to clinch the 2020 PBR World Championship about an hour-and-a-half earlier.
“This journey is amazing,” Leme said. “This is my dream. My life. But I know there is still plenty of work to do.”
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Lockwood in awe of joining childhood heroes in PBR record books with second world title (2019)
LAS VEGAS – Newly minted two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood took a seat inside the now empty locker room at T-Mobile Arena and wrapped his left fingers around a cold Coors Banquet.
Disbelief and leftover adrenaline had resulted in the 22-year-old being at a near loss for words.
It was a stark contrast compared to two years ago when the stunned 20-year-old sat on the exact same bench in the locker room wiping tears out of his eyes with an unwavering smile after achieving a lifelong dream of becoming a World Champion.
Lockwood’s second title is more historic than symbolic for the kid from the ever so small and rural town of Volborg, Montana.
At only 22 years old, and with his entire career still in front of him, Lockwood has placed his name next to the all-time bull riding greats after winning his second World Championship in four seasons at the 2019 PBR World Finals.
Lockwood is only the sixth rider in PBR history to have won multiple World Championships, and he now ranks sixth all-time in career earnings ($3,918,473.66).
“I don’t even know,” said Lockwood. “I wanted it so bad because there are a lot of guys that have one world title. You don’t even remember a lot of the guys that have one world title and that’s it. To put myself up there with my hero, Justin McBride, is unthinkable to me. That is a guy that I have looked up to forever. To say that I am along with him and J.B. Mauney, and I have six, seven eight more years.
“I don’t even know where to start.”
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Pacheco achieves childhood dream and wins emotional World Championship (2018)
LAS VEGAS – Kaique Pacheco put his still trembling hands around the PBR World Championship trophy, draped in both Brazilian and American flags, as he was introduced to the T-Mobile Arena crowd as the 2018 World Champion on Sunday afternoon.
It took Pacheco – a slow and battered Pacheco – a couple of minutes to limp his way from the PBR Sports Medicine room to the center of the arena as the pain in his mauled left knee had only gotten worse and worse with each bull he attempted during the grueling five days of competition at the 2018 PBR World Finals.
Since he was a little boy in Itatiba, Brazil, Pacheco had dreamed of this moment.
The pain was never going to stop him from riding in Las Vegas.
There was never a question.
Eight days earlier, Pacheco had torn his left PCL and MCL at the 2018 Real Time Pain Relief Velocity Tour Finals.
It appeared as if Pacheco would be on his way to another crushing World Championship shortcoming.
That doubt even creeped into Pacheco’s own mind, the 24-year-old would later admit late on Sunday evening.
Therefore, as Pacheco stood there holding that silver and gold trophy in his hands, the Ice Man finally broke down.
Three years of heartbreak, seven long, restless nights at the Park MGM Hotel and Casino as he struggled to sleep because of the radiating pain in his knee, nearly 40 hours of treatment and the realization of a lifelong dream all overcame him.
He was the World Champion.
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