ProRodeo Sports News - May 18, 2018

Marcos Costa reacts after clocking a 7.8-second time in Round 10 of the 2017 Wrangler NFR in Las Vegas. The time vaulted him to his first world championship and NFR average crown. PRCA ProRodeo photo By Roseanna Sales

Dealing withAdversity Costa sidelined with knee injury, determined to return to form BY TRACY RENCK W ith each passing day, the pain in his right knee wasn’t going away. Reigning PRCA Tie-Down Roping World Champion Marcos Costa wanted to defend his crown, but that will not happen. Rather than trying to grind through the season and put off fixing his troublesome knee, Costa opted for surgery. He underwent surgery on his right knee April 26 and is expected to be sidelined for up to seven months. podium by earning $317,421. He also won the average at the 2017Wrangler NFR with an 81.3-second time on 10 head and the RAMTop Gun Award for most money won at the Wrangler NFR. Costa is from Iretama, a ranching and farming community of 11,000 in the southern state of Paraná in Brazil. “In 2016, I finished second (in the world) and I wanted to win so bad,” he said. “God gave me a chance to win in 2017, and I decided now in 2018, I needed to take care of my knee. I’m doing my rehab in Decatur, Texas, twice a day at Fit-N-Wise (Rehabilitation and Performance Center). This is going to be a slow process, and it is going to take a lot of patience and a lot of work, but

I want to get in the best shape of my life and win the world again.” Costa was sixth in the May 17 RAMPRCAWorld Standings with $41,795. ADVERSITY NOT NEWTO COSTA The journey Costa has traveled to get to this point in his rodeo career has been a long and winding road with peaks and valleys. In the summer of 2013, Stran Smith, the 2008 PRCA Tie-Down Roping World Champion, crossed paths with Costa while Smith was putting on clinics in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“I was hurt for two years and I decided to stop and get this taken care of now, so I can come back next year,” said Costa, 27. “I tore my ACL and the medial and lateral meniscus, and I also had scar tissue. I was going to have to stop sometime and have this surgery and I decided to stop this year and have it done.” This was the fifth time Costa has had right knee surgery since 2011. He initially tore the ACL in his knee that year when he slammed a calf on top of his leg while he was roping in Brazil. A year ago, Costa made history by becoming the first native Brazilian to win the Tie-Down Roping World Title. Costa reached the top of the PRCA

ProRodeo Sports News 5/18/2018

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