At 17 Years old, Breakaway Roping Sensation Addie Weil is Just Getting Started

By: Darci Miller

PUEBLO, Colo. – When Addie Weil qualified for the WCRA’s Titletown Stampede in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in June of 2019, the then-15-year-old breakaway roper noticed she was in a draw with 19-time world champion Jackie Crawford.

Even more startling? Weil had advanced to Green Bay, while eight-time world champion Lari Dee Guy had not.

“For a 15-year-old girl, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’” Weil said. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated by those girls when I first entered.”

Now 17 years old, Weil could one day be adding her name to the list of breakaway roping greats.

At the WCRA’s Stampede at the E last August, Weil’s times won both go-rounds and the aggregate in the youth division and earned her a spot in the main event, where she placed seventh.

In November, she also advanced as far as the Main Event at the inaugural Women’s Rodeo World Championship in Arlington, Texas.

While she was thrilled with her own performance and the experience of roping on one of rodeo’s biggest stages, she was even more thrilled for what it meant for her sport.

 
“The Women’s Rodeo World Championship was such a great opportunity for us, and the fact that every event paid out the same, that was incredible,” she said. “You can’t go very many places where team roping is going to pay the same as barrel racing. And the WCRA has done such an incredible job with that in supporting and catering to women’s rodeo, and has really helped us grow, not just in that one rodeo, but everyone, everywhere. There are girls that are coming back out every time to breakaway rope. Team ropers that used to breakaway rope and used to be very competitive breakaway ropers that started team roping because that’s where the money is, now they can come back out to breakaway rope. That’s really amazing and pretty incredible.”

It’s quite the perspective for such a young athlete, as Weil has grown up as breakaway roping is breaking out.

But the struggle for equality isn’t lost on any breakaway ropers, even the young ones, and Weil knows that she has many of her competitors to thank for her boundless opportunities today.

“I know that some of my friends who are a little bit older than me, they didn’t have the experiences that I have at my age,” Weil said. “They put in so much blood, sweat and tears to make breakaway what it is now. And I’m so excited for our future. I think we should grow to be equal money and equal opportunity, and breakaway’s going to be everywhere. If there’s a rodeo, they’re having breakaway. It’s going to be a guarantee, not just a possibility. I can’t wait for that in breakaway roping, and I think we should get there as soon as possible.

“I can’t wait for the next generation of breakaway ropers that are going to have even more opportunities than I do now, which is a lot to say. Girls can go out there and win $200,000, and it’s going to be even better in 10 more years? In five more years? That’s incredible.”

Weil grew up in Edna, Kansas, in a rodeo family. Her mom had horses, her dad tie-down roped and team roped, and Addie began roping alongside her younger brother, Cutter, when she was little more than a toddler. The family raises and trains all their own horses, so Addie and Cutter were on horseback – and competing with each other – from a very early age.

“It was always a pretty big competition between me and my brother, which I really enjoyed,” Addie said. “It’s always fun having that competition living right with you 24/7. It’s, ‘Is he going to get out the door first, or am I?’”

While the two have their separate careers in breakaway roping and tie-down roping, respectively, they team rope together at high school rodeos.

“It’s super nice to be able to practice with your partner at home every single day. I know exactly what he needs whenever I turn a steer for him, and I know the shots he needs to take, and I can kind of accommodate for that.”

Addie has excelled in breakaway roping in recent years, but it hasn’t come easy. She tried her hand at barrel racing, pole bending and goat tying when she was young and initially struggled in breakaway roping because she’s left-handed.

While there were doubts, they eventually fueled her and turned her into the athlete she is today.

“I kept working at it, and worked harder than everyone else, because I knew I don’t have much talent,” Weil said. “I’m left-handed. Everyone who’s right-handed, they’ve already got that. Everything’s a little more natural for them. But I just looked at that and knew that I had to work a little bit harder than them to get to where they wanted to be, and to get to where I wanted to be.

“I knew that you have to work at it every day. There’s no days off. If it’s snowing here, like it does in Kansas, then we rope the dummy. You find something. This is what I want my future to be, and if I’m not working on it every single day, then that’s hurting future me.”

Future Addie Weil is looking to be as formidable as current Addie Weil, if not more so. Weil is not only laser-focused on both breakaway roping and team roping, but wants to become a veterinarian. A junior at Manhattan Virtual Academy, she’s enrolled in three college classes to get a head start on her prerequisites – she’s currently taking an equine science class, plus music appreciation and American history, in addition to high school-level geometry, physics and AP language and composition.

“I know it’s going to be pretty tough, though I’m not in it because it’s easy,” Weil said. “I know I have the work ethic to get there.

“My proudest accomplishment is my next one, honestly. I really am looking forward to my future and what I’m going to be, and I want to be somewhere big.”

EMPOWERING WOMEN TOGETHER VIRTUAL PANEL SET FOR MARCH 30

Fans are welcome to join CBS Sports Network’s Kate Harrison as she hosts a virtual panel with some of the female trailblazers of the Western Sports industry.

Harrison will lead a discussion, as well as take questions from fans, on March 30 at 8 p.m. ET. Harrison will be joined by stock contractor Tiffany Davis, champion barrel racer Michelle Darling, Peyton Gay (founder of Peyton’s Project Runway), Kaitlin Teel (owner of Shop Teel/Sparrow Lane) and Valeria Howard Cunningham (CEO/President of Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo).

Space is limited, but fans can register for the free PBR Virtual Experience today by clicking here.

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