Frustration, Doubt and Worries Were Never an Option for Leme During Historic Second World Championship Season
By: Justin Felisko
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 six 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.
“Be honest with me. How many points does Kaique (Pacheco) need to catch me?” Leme inquired, gritting his teeth as the pain in his right side began to worsen.
Leme had missed the last six events of the regular season because of a core muscle injury, and he had felt a pop in his right groin again on Saturday night in Round 4. By the time he rode in Round 5, the pain was becoming unbearable.
This moment of agony was something he had actually expected to happen earlier in the week.
“It hurts way worse than ever before,” Leme said as he threw his head back to look at the ceiling. “It is so hard because when you have pain like this on a bull, it is hard to keep concentrated on him. You put all of your attention on the injury. I already expected some pain from this. This happened later than I expected.”
By the end of Round 5, Leme had clinched the world title as he could finish no lower than sixth in the event aggregate if he bucked off in the championship round, making him the seventh bull rider in PBR history with two or more PBR World Championships.
Ten-time PBR World Finals qualifier Paulo Crimber leaned over in the sports medicine room and gave his longtime friend a congratulatory hug as Leme was informed his season of greatness had ended with a second gold buckle.
Leme smiled and nodded his head in happiness, but there was no massive celebration.
He did not look at all like a man ready to say, ‘mission accomplished.’
The 25-year-old was still laser-focused. He rolled off the sports medicine table, grimacing once again, and began to prepare for the championship round, where a rematch against his good “buddy” and No. 1 YETI World Champion bull contender Woopaa was set.
Leme began to tape his riding wrist and apply some pain-relieving cream on his groin.
Dr. Freeman informed him that he did not have to compete in the championship round if he felt too hurt to ride.
Leme immediately brushed off the idea.
Blasphemy!
Doctoring out was out of the question.
“I am getting on,” Leme said. “The job is not done. I need to finish this perfect season by winning the World Finals. This is the last one in Las Vegas. Tell them I am riding.”
2019 Rookie of the Year Dalton Kasel was sitting in the sports medicine room as well.
Kasel eyebrows went up in amazement, and he grinned.
“That is a cowboy right there,” Kasel said. “No surprise.”
The only people seemingly concerned about him were everyone else who saw Leme struggling to gather the energy to speak or walk in Las Vegas.
Now he was going to try to ride Woopaa?
However, for those who know the Ribas do Rio Pardo, Brazil, bull rider well, they would be the first to tell anyone that frustration, worries and doubts are simply not part of Leme’s DNA.
It was almost as if learning he had won a second gold buckle was the true painkiller he needed to grab his bull rope one more time and prepare for what would become the greatest bull ride in PBR history.
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AN UNDERLYING RECORD LEME HAS ALWAYS BEEN CHASING
There is one man who Leme always wants to pull his rope if the situation allows for it – his best friend Lucas Divino.
Divino and Leme traveled together in Brazil before both riders made the transition to the United States four years ago. In 2019, Divino was the man who embraced a tearful Leme inside T-Mobile Arena when Leme heartbreakingly lost out on the 2019 World Championship to Jess Lockwood.
A year later, Divino was the first man in the locker room to congratulate Leme on finishing out the World Championship.
Divino pulled Leme’s rope during Leme’s historic 97.75-point ride on Woopaa in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on July 31, and 100 days later, he was once again there inside T-Mobile Arena at Leme’s side. Divino had heard Larry Barker tell Leme, ‘Let’s go break the record,’ while he went to grab Leme’s bull rope, and Divino knew Leme was about to do something never before seen in the sport.
RELATED: Leme wants to one day make a statue of him and Woopaa
These are the moments the two often talk about.
“He wants to break all the records,” Divino explained. “ALL of the records. We talk about them all. He is going to try to be a four-time World Champion, and he wants to break the events win record in one season. He wants to break every single thing.
“He knows he can do it.”
Leme has spoken publicly, and frequently, about his desires to break 90-point ride records, championships, wins and all of those things.
Yet there was one record, in particular, he had kept close to the vest.
Leme has long desired to make the perfect bull ride.
When he rode Woopaa in Tulsa, Leme came up 0.5 points short of being awarded a perfect individual score of 50 points as only three of the four judges inside the BOK Center that summer night believed he was perfect.
Sunday at the 2021 PBR World Finals – there was no question.
Every judge scored Leme 25 points, equating to a 50-point score, as Leme re-wrote the record books again with the single-highest scored bull ride in PBR history with a sensational 98.75-point ride on 2021 YETI World Champion Bull Woopaa to win the 2021 PBR World Finals.
He truly was perfect.
“I had already looked for that perfect score when I rode Woopaa for 97.75 points in Tulsa, and some of those judges then gave me a quarter less than others and I scored 49.5,” Leme said. “When I looked at that, I said, ‘Well, I want to be perfect one day and score 50 points.’ So now I am happy to do that.”
PBR Director of Livestock Cody Lambert said there was no question the judges were spot on this time.
“They absolutely got it right,” Lambert said. “I was out there on the dirt, and I told Flint, ‘He’s either going to be 98 or 99.’ And he was.”
The ride capped Leme’s perfect 6-for-6 performance at the World Finals and helped him finish his season of greatness with a PBR-record 24 90-point rides and 21 round wins. His eight event wins is tied with two-time World Champion Justin McBride for the most all time.
“Records are another kind of World Championship,” Leme said. “That is why I am here. If I don’t want to write history, I would be back in Brazil with my family and friends and do fun things that I enjoy. But I am here to make my history and do my job. I use that for motivation. I saw the numbers and all the records I can break. That for sure brings me a lot of motivation to keep doing that and to keep riding my bulls, pick rank bulls to be 90, win events.”
Leme joined two-time World Champion J.B. Mauney as the second rider in PBR history to win the World Finals multiple times without bucking off a bull. He is the fourth all-time to win the World Finals more than once alongside Mauney, three-time World Finals event winner Robson Palermo and 1996 PBR World Champion Troy Dunn.
Leme said there was “never a doubt” about him getting on Woopaa on Sunday despite his injuries.
“I was just thinking about riding him because when I hear I win the world title, I knew my goals were not over because I wanted to win the World Finals too,” Leme said. “I wanted to finish like I started here. That is what I came for. That is what I work for. I just thank God for giving me power and energy and protection to ride all these bulls. I got injured again in Round 4, and God gave me energy and health to come today to ride my next two bulls. I am just so, so blessed.”
LEME NEVER PANICKED ONCE HE PARTIALLY TORE HIS GROIN & MADE THINGS WORSE
It seemed like a no-brainer in September that Leme would become the seventh rider in PBR history to win multiple world titles, putting his name next to three-time World Champions Adriano Moraes and Silvano Alves, and two-time champs Chris Shivers, McBride, Mauney and Lockwood.
However, the world title race became a competition again when Leme came up with a limp following his 90.75-point, event-winning ride on Slingin Tears in Newark, New Jersey, on Sept. 19. Leme was diagnosed with a partially torn right groin, which he then made worse by returning to a practice session too soon on Oct. 6 and sustaining a core muscle injury.
When Leme arrived in Las Vegas, his core muscle injury was affecting a total of four muscles on his right side – two of his groin/thigh muscles, as well as an abdominal and oblique muscle.
It had been over a month since he last attempted to ride a bull.
Divino and Leme’s wife, Amanda, both said Leme never once asked for sympathy for his situation or felt bad for himself in the fall. Nor did he ask for pity during the beginning of the season when he broke his ankle on his first ride attempt of the season in Ocala, Florida, forcing him out of competition for three events.
If anything, Leme’s injuries just made him that much more driven.
“He always kept focused,” Divino said. “He never tried to skip anything or make excuses. This injury made him stronger. He focused more on his goals. This is amazing. Every single day, he shows up ready to do something else. He teach me this. I am very happy for him to finish this the way he wanted to.”
Leme rehabbed vigorously at Fit-N-Wise Rehabilitation & Performance Center, and trainer Jim Bui said Leme approached his rehab the same way he would inside the bucking chutes.
“He was focused throughout the entire process, disciplined, resilient, and hungry,” Bui said before the PBR Finals began. “He never questioned anything that we did and fully trusted the process. He made the rehab process look as easy as him riding the bulls.”
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Amanda said she was probably the one who was more worried about the possibility of him losing the world title. Nothing ever rattles her husband, except maybe herself, she said with a laugh.
“I was really worried about him not being able to finish the job he started,” Amanda said with the help of Crimber translating. “He worked so hard for it, and he got hurt so close to the Finals. I was afraid he would be here, and get hurt again, and not be able to compete. I was more worried than him, and I had more doubts than he did. He always shows so much confidence, and he knew what he was coming here to do.”
Amanda said it was certainly nerve-racking seeing Leme climb aboard Woopaa knowing an hour earlier he was getting helped off the dirt by the sports medicine team.
Even Crimber, who won the 2004 National Finals Rodeo bull riding event title riding with a broken hand, was concerned.
“When you set your mind for your goal, when you climb into the chute, you feel like superman,” Crimber said. “That is what Jose was feeling. Before today, I never felt the need to pray for Jose. But today before Woopaa, that is the first time I have done it. Right after I congratulated him on winning the world, I felt the need to pray in my heart to give him strength to not feel any pain during the ride.”
As Amanda clutched at their baby boy, Theodore, sitting in the front row, she wasn’t sure what was going to happen until she saw her husband leap off Woopaa and celebrate his historic ride.
“I know what he is capable of, but today he even surprised me, and even himself maybe,” Amanda said. “I thought based on his injury and how bad he was hurt, this just surprises me. I am so proud of him.”
AN OBSESSION TO BE PERFECT & A HATRED FOR LOSING
John Crimber, Paulo’s son, was sitting in the locker room Sunday waiting to congratulate Leme on winning his second World Championship.
Crimber considers Leme a mentor and a close friend, and he hopes to one day be competing alongside Leme at the PBR World Finals. For now, though, Crimber spends his weeks training with Leme and hanging out with the legendary bull rider at home in Decatur, Texas.
The teenager explained Leme’s obsession with breaking records and perfection stems beyond bull riding and the soccer field.
Even a small thing such as playing video games brings out Leme’s intensity.
Crimber, the reigning Texas High School Bull Riding State Champion, remembers a time Leme, a former semi-pro soccer player in Brazil, lost a game of FIFA to him on Playstation 5.
Leme did not throw his controller in anger or frustration. Instead, he went and played by himself for hours to improve.
The next time they played, Leme dominated.
“If he loses at anything, like even video games, he will go play it for more than two hours to get better at what he didn’t do to win the next time,” Crimber said shaking his head and laughing. “Everything I do wrong, he makes me correct it. I get on one bull and buck off; he says get on four more and get it right.
“He is really a blessing in my life. He is really the great of all time, and I couldn’t have a better teacher.”
Divino says he has never seen Leme angry or frustrated about a loss or a situation.
Even brief moments of sadness quickly evaporate.
“He does not really get frustrated,” Divino said. “Sometimes he would be sad, but never angry or frustrated. This is the funny part. A lot of people, when they push so hard to win and they don’t, they get frustrated. He does not. The only thing he says is, ‘It is ok, this is my fault and I have to train more.’ He never looks down or steps back, and never opens his mouth to say, ‘I am not going to do it.’
“The only thing he is going to say is, ‘I am going to do it.’”
Leme approaches life refusing to fail, and when he does happen to lose at something, he does not panic. Instead, he doubles down on himself and his ability to learn how to improve.
“Losing is part of the game. It is part of life,” Leme said. “We are not going to win every time, every weekend. I like winning. Everybody likes winning, but I hate losing. But that is part of life.
“I know that is part of bull riding too. When you lose, it is just not your time. I know being frustrated won’t make a difference. You have to improve your path for it to happen. Every time you lose something, you learn something too. It is like when I bucked off bulls away from my hand earlier in my career. I knew I needed to fix that, and I came back home, and I practiced away from my hand. I learned a lot of things like that. It is not like I lost to Kaique that time (in 2018) or Jess (in 2019). I lost to the bulls. It is not me/Kaique or me and somebody. It is me and the bulls.”
THE PRAISE OF LEGENDS
Nine-time World Champion Ty Murray walked down the grandstands of T-Mobile Arena and made his way to center stage.
Murray had to shake Leme’s hand and congratulate him personally on all he has accomplished this season.
“There are certain things in sports that happen where they talk about them for the rest of time,” Murray said. “If you go back to Joe Namath guaranteeing (a Super Bowl win) and you look at things like that. This feels like one of those moments.
“Like I said on the telecast, Jose is so young and so early in his career that I won’t even say he is on pace… He is ahead of pace to go down as the greatest of all time.”
The PBR co-founder and CBS Sports analyst jokingly bowed down to Leme as the newly minted World Champion walked off the shark cage.
“That is so, so special for me. He is a legend,” Leme said. “He is a legend, and I have watched him riding bulls and all of his history. He did that to me. That is amazing because he was a great bull rider. He is one of the greatest of all time, too. He has so many PRCA titles, and he is a legend to me. I am so proud he congratulated me.”
Leme’s 2021 season will go down as arguably the greatest season of all time.
Leme set or tied six PBR records this year: most round wins in a season (21); most 90-point rides in a season (24); first perfect 50-point rider score; highest-marked qualified ride of all time (98.75 points); average ride score for a season (89.82 points) and most event wins in a season (tied with 8).
“He will go down in history. This is the best season the PBR has ever seen,” two-time World Champion Justin McBride, who won eight events in 2007, said.
The numbers speak for themselves – and he did it despite missing 31% of the season (nine events).
Leme was victorious at 40% of the events he competed at.
He went 49-for-71 (69.01%) and ended the season with 12 consecutive rides.
“What he has done in one year, all them other records are done over a 15-year span in different years by different guys,” 2002 World Finals event winner J.W. Hart said “This was all one guy. All in the same year. It is hard to argue it is not the best year ever.”
Lambert added, “He broke so many records, but he only competed for two-thirds of the season. And then he’s injured at the last little bit. He’s injured coming into the Finals. And he didn’t forget how to approach it. He says all the right things. He does all the right things.”
If not for two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood’s heroic comeback in 2019, Leme would easily have won three consecutive gold buckles already.
“He is a two-time World Champion for a reason,” Lockwood said. “This season has been so record-breaking for him, and he deserves it.”
Fellow two-time World Champion J.B. Mauney drank a celebratory Coors banquet with Leme last year in Arlington, Texas, after Leme won his first world title and he told the superstar to go break every record possible in 2021.
Mauney has always been an inspiration to Leme, and Mauney held the previous rounds won record with 19 in his 2013 championship season.
“That’s what records are there for,” Mauney said. “They are meant to be broken. I am glad it was him.”
Of course, Mauney was the man who stopped Silvano Alves from winning three consecutive gold buckles, which Leme will attempt to do in 2022.
Alves – the only rider in PBR history before Leme to successfully win back-to-back world titles – tipped his hat to Leme on joining him in the record books.
“He is the man, and he did his job,” Alves said. “He tried hard all year. It is not easy. Only one guy has done this before. I was very proud to be the first guy, and I am very proud for him to be the second guy. He did a great job this year.”
THE RESPECT OF HIS CHAMPIONSHIP CHALLENGERS
Cooper Davis was packing up his gear in the locker room when he heard John Crimber talking about Leme’s obsession to beat him in video games.
The 2016 World Champion, who finished No. 3 in this year’s title race, just shook his head and started laughing.
Davis was not even surprised to hear that.
The Jasper, Texas, native then compared Leme to Jean Girard, the main antagonist in the 2006 comedy film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Girard is a fictional French F1 driving sensation who seems impossible to defeat.
“I would kiss Jose on the lips if he would go back to Brazil,” Davis said jokingly. “In my opinion, Jose is hands down the best bull rider of all time, and in a short period of time. That ride on Woopaa was hands down the best ride I’ve ever seen. Fighting through a groin injury is really touchy, and the way he could block it out and get by, that is just as astonishing as his riding is.”
2018 World Champion Kaique Pacheco finished 884 points Leme and was runner-up in the world title race.
“It was a great ride on Woopaa, and he had a great year,” Pacheco said. “He rode really good. He is an incredible bull rider.”
While Pacheco and Davis offered congrats to Leme, the reigning two-time World Champion said his two closest competitors deserve kudos for their own sensational seasons.
They certainly pushed Leme all year long, and even Leme’s season of greatness still could not clinch him a world title until Championship Sunday because of Pacheco and Davis’s efforts.
“This was harder to win than the first one,” Leme said. “Kaique was riding so good here. Riders like him and Cooper, they are never going to give up, and you know they are going to ride their bulls. I knew I had to ride. I saw them riding their bulls and I told myself, ‘Now I have to do that.’
“I am so happy to have them in this battle. That motivated me. When I see a good ride from them, that brings me a lot of energy to ride my bulls, and they are really good riders too. How I look at Kaique, I have told a lot people how perfect I think he rides, and Cooper, I am happy to have that battle with them this year. That was for sure my hardest world title to win.”
LEME ALREADY HAS SIGHTS ON NEXT RECORD
Leme tossed his riding vest into his gear bag and let out a sigh.
Peace and tranquility had finally surrounded him inside the silence of the now empty locker room at T-Mobile Arena.
The confetti had settled on the dirt, and the last championship photos were taken outside.
“Mission accomplished,” Leme finally said with pride.
He started to autograph a series of fake $1 million bills for some fans outside, but he was already starting to turn the page of his legendary book.
He is ready to start writing the next chapter.
“This one is over now,” Leme said. “I have to start thinking about the next season, and for sure I want to win again. I will for sure work to do my best again. I just have to have God with me to give me power from the injuries and just do what I did. I am for sure thinking about going after that third championship.
“It is time to work for that.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media