$1.9 Million Bareback Rider Richmond Champion Retires After 9 NFR Qualifications

Richmond Champion has announced his retirement from competition.

Richmond Champion in Round 9 of the 2016 NFR | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

Richmond Champion built the kind of career most would call legendary. While still a college rodeo athlete, Champion made history at the first-ever The American Rodeo.

At 21 years old, Champion became an instant millionaire when his 90-point ride won the bareback riding and $1.1 million. As a qualifier to the event, he was eligible for the $1 million bonus on top of a $100,000 event payout.

When the dust settled on March 2, 2014, he was the only qualifier to win his event and took home the full $1 million.

That win kick-started a very successful career in professional rodeo that spanned over a decade.

Champion, who began competitive skiing at a young age when his family lived in Alaska, did not grow up rodeoing.

His family moved several times throughout his childhood, and during those moves, Champion discovered rodeo. While in high school, he began riding bulls.

A chance encounter with Bubba Miller, the rodeo coach from Sam Houston State University, landed Champion in the chutes, trying his hand at bareback riding.

Champion's talent for the sport shone immediately. He rode his first bareback horse in the summer of 2010, and by 2011, he was crowned the Texas State High School Rodeo Champion Bareback Rider.

He purchased his PRCA card that same year, qualifying for the Texas Circuit Finals on his permit. Champion began to work his way up the World Standings over the next few years. In 2012, he finished just outside the top 30, at No. 32.

In 2013, he came in at No. 25.

Winning The American was not the only landmark moment of Champion's 2014 season, as he qualified for his first National Finals Rodeo (NFR) that year. The momentum of his great season carried through the NFR, where he found even more success.

Champion won Round 5 with an 88.5-point ride on PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year Dirty Jacket, finishing second in the NFR Average standings and No. 3 in the World Standings.

In 2015, he fell just short of qualifying for the NFR again, but he remedied that with six consecutive trips from 2016 to 2021. Champion spent a good portion of 2022 recovering from an injury and missed the NFR once more, but returned in 2023 and 2024.

Champion Announces Retirement

Richmond Champion at the Red Bluff Round Up | Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images

With nine NFR qualifications, $1.98 million in PRCA career earnings, and championships at many of the top professional rodeos in the world to his credit, Champion has announced his retirement from competition.

In a social media post by Cowboy+, the 33-year-old has shared that the time has come to end his 15-year professional rodeo career.

Champion, who married Olympic figure skater Paige Lawrence, still calls Stevensville, Mont., home. Richie and Paige have a two-year-old son and are expecting their second child in October 2026.

Happy retirement, Richie, and congratulations on an incredible career.