Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Five-time defending NFR champion Sage Kimzey is riding high, combining talent with intense work ethic

2018 NFR: Final Night

Joe Buglewicz/Las Vegas News Bureau

Sage Kimzey is introduced as bull riding aggregate champion during the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018, in Las Vegas. The WNFR is the premier championship rodeo event in the United States.

Sage Kimzey remembers his first time competing at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. From the roar of the sellout Thomas & Mack Center crowd to the feeling of accomplishment after winning his first bull-riding title, Kimzey made sure to savor every moment.

“There’s just so much honor and prestige behind the event,” says Kimzey, a 25-year-old from Strong City, Oklahoma, who in 2014 became the second rookie bull rider to win a gold buckle, the championship ring of sorts for competitors in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

“When you’re a kid growing up playing basketball, you dream of hitting a game-winning shot at the buzzer in Game 7,” he continues. “All cowboys grow up wanting to win that gold buckle.”

Kimzey has been traveling on the rodeo circuit for as long as he can remember, always envisioning the day when he’d be at the center of the action. His father, Ted, was a longtime Association barrelman (aka clown), and Sage’s siblings also competed. His life seemed destined to include Decembers in Las Vegas.

“My parents didn’t care one way or the other if I rode bulls or did whatever for a career,” he says. “They just told me that whatever I do, put my whole heart into.”

Kimzey remembers meeting Cody Custer, the 1992 bull riding world champion and a ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee, at a National Finals and being awed by his greatness. That’s the way other aspiring cowboys now surely feel about Kimzey, who has quickly developed into one of the faces of rodeo, having won five straight bull-riding titles and become the youngest millionaire on the circuit with $1.8 million in career earnings.

“Guys like him come along once every 30 or 40 years,” four-time champion J.W. Harris told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. “He is a rare talent.”

Kimzey is considered smart, charismatic and full of talent. More important, he has a deep appreciation for the sport’s history, able to rattle off competitors he grew up idolizing and cherishing his place next to them in the record books. If he wins the NFR’s bull-riding title again this year, it will equal the six straight won by Jim Shoulders from 1954-59. And Shoulders, the Babe Ruth of bull riding, was the man, Kimzey will tell you. Just watch the video on YouTube.

“I’m living out the dream of a 6-year-old kid,” Kimzey says. “Everyone wanted to be like Jim Shoulders.”

By the time cowboys get to Las Vegas each year, they’ve competed in nearly 100 events and been on the road for 250 days. In other words, they’re mentally and physically drained. When Kimzey won in 2018, he competed with a separated shoulder and a minor fracture in his pelvis. When he won in Round 10, his jubilation was obvious—and so was his pain. “Nobody promised it would be easy; they promised it would be worth it,” he said in his post-ride arena interview that night.

Like champion athletes in other sports—say, LeBron James in basketball or Tom Brady in football—the work behind the scenes is what separates Kimzey. The work outside the competition becomes legendary.

What you see at the Thomas & Mack is the end result of hours of training, everything from practice runs to cardio training. Kimzey also spends countless hours on the mental part of the game.

“The simple fact is he wants it more than everyone else,” Harris said. “He really works at it and is a perfectionist. Those are the things that separate him from everyone else.”

That, Kimzey says, is the only way he knows how to prepare. After all, there’s a gold buckle to win over 10 days in Las Vegas, and plenty of fans lining up to watch him add to his legacy. “Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world, right?” he says. “Let’s put on a show.”

Others to watch

Notables competing this year include: tie-down roper Tuf Cooper, the son of legendary roper Roy Cooper; bareback riders Tim O’Connell and Kaycee Feild; and barrel racer Hailey Kinsel. Trevor Brazile,

a mostly retired 24-time world champion, won’t compete at this year’s NFR but will be in town for the festivities.

This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.