Daily Archives: February 17, 2010

There was searing pain, of course, when Marcus Michaelis shredded a muscle in his right groin while thrashing atop a bull in Salt Lake City last summer.

But it was what happened next that he found peculiar.

“Whenever you get hurt like that, something serious, stuff starts going in slow motion,” Michaelis, 30, said Tuesday night at the AT&T Center. “It just all slowed down.”

That didn’t stop once he got off the offending beast.

The 150-pound Idaho native was knocked out of action for six months with the injury, which impacted the muscle needed to help grip the 2-ton bull as it contorts during a ride that competitors hope will last at least eight seconds.

When he returned this season, including this week at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, things remained awfully peculiar. Despite his right groin still throbbing, Michaelis has enjoyed one of the hottest starts of his career.

Coming into the San Antonio competition, Michaelis was second in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association standings, with nearly $22,000 earned in four events. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights at the AT&T Center, he earned an additional $6,222 with top scores in each go-round.

“This winter is the least healthy I have felt, but I’m winning,” said Michaelis (read more and picture credit)