They say that iron sharpens iron, and that proved to be the case in the bareback riding at the 2017 WNFR. The sharpest rider was Zwingle, Iowa’s Tim O’Connell, who won his second consecutive world title by a margin of over $100,000 on December 16 in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The only competitor to top O’Connell’s winning margin was bull rider Sage Kimzey, who bested his closest competition by over $114,000. In the bareback riding, eight of the 15 competitors rode all 10 of their horses, ensuring O’Connell could not make a mistake throughout the entire week of competition.

In interviews surrounding the WNFR, O’Connell marveled at the skill of the other 14 competitors he was up against and said they pushed him to the heights he reached during the finals. 

O’Connell held off that tough competition with an impressively consistent finals, never letting his lead drop lower than $80,000 above his nearest competition and nearly sealing up the title after the second to last performance, with only one other competitor having a mathematical chance to win the finals.

“I can’t even put it into words,” O’Connell told ProRodeo.com. “To do it back-to-back, to have both the buckles sitting in my hands again going back to Iowa, what a blessing. It was harder this year, way harder this year than it was last year. The group of guys that are here are better than any of the guys that have set foot in this arena. This is the best set of 15 bareback riders that ever hit this arena.”

O’Connell may have only won one round during the 2017 NFR, but he did so in fine fashion in round three aboard PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year “Virgil” from C5 Rodeo. O’Connell faced off against the strong grey horse and came away with a 91.5-point score, tying the arena record for the bareback riding.

O’Connell picked up checks in seven out of 10 rounds, with an impressive average score of 85.35 points on his way to the world title and average win.

After winning the world title at such an early stage in his career last year, O’Connell, who says he is a very goal-oriented person, had to re-evaluate his career goals.

“I’m very goal-oriented. I had to rewrite my goals after last year in Vegas,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Now, my goal is to win six world titles and be the best ever. I’ve really had to focus, to not get too far ahead. This field is probably the best there’s ever been. It’s salty. Any given day, any given ride, any of these guys can win.”

So in true champion fashion, O’Connell has barely allowed his second title to sink in before looking ahead to the next one, stating in a Facebook post, “The chase for the 3rd is right over the ridge!”