10 NEWS
MONDAY JULY 18 2016
This clown
Bull’s horn hit his
throat so hard his
windpipe
swelled, causing
breathing
difficulties.
Broken facial
bones including
left and right
cheek when a
horn hit his face.
They call them Rodeo Clowns, but it’s no joke
taking on angry bulls to save fallen riders — for fun
— writes SAMANTHA TOWNSEND
$5000 to repair
front top tooth
after it was
knocked out.
Broken left and
right thumbs.
Broken
sternum.
Broken right
forearm.
Four broken
ribs.
Broken left pinky
and ring fingers.
Cracked right
elbow.
Bumps and
bruises all
over the body.
Right knee
reconstruction after
the bull jumped on
it during national
finals.
M
itch Russell is a professional
protection
athlete — aka the
rodeo clown. But just
don’t call him a
clown because
there is nothing
funny
about what he does.
His job involves protecting
riders after they have been
bucked off a raging bull. He
does whatever it takes to
keep them and the livestock
safe, while trying to keep clear
himself. This can mean putting his
body between a rider and a one-tonne
bull or laying across a fallen cowboy to
make sure they are not trampled.
“Bullfighting is nothing you can
script, you just have to react to what is
happening and make good decisions
to help riders,” Russell said.
“If someone has to get hurt it’s
going to be the bullfighter.”
As a result of putting his body on
the line he’s taken plenty of hits.
At just 30, Russell has sustained
countless injuries, including 14 broken
bones between his foot and face as
well as forking out $5000 when his
front tooth was knocked out.
He’s had three knee reconstructions; the latest in 2010 after a bull
jumped on his right knee during the
national finals.
But Russell said the worst injury
was six years ago when he was hit so
hard in the neck by a bull’s horn that
his windpipe swelled up and he had
trouble breathing.
“That was probably the scariest
injury,” he said.
“Bulls are unknown quantities, you
don’t know where they will go, you
just have to read the situation.
“And there are plenty of situations
where I say to myself this is going to
hurt me, but I don’t ever think I will
never get out.”
He hasn’t always been a protection
athlete.
At 17, like most country teenage
boys, he had grand plans of becoming
a professional bull rider.
As a junior he made six national
bull riding finals while he was still
employed as a bullfighter.
But once he reached the “big
leagues”, he quickly discovered he
was better at protecting the athletes
from the bulls rather than riding
them himself.
“I wasn’t too bad as a junior and I
hoped to make a career out of it,”
Russell said.
“The older I got I knew I didn’t
have the ability to ride bulls, the
nerves actually got to me.”
Now he’s been a bullfighter for 13
years and attends all the major Professional Bull Riding (PBR) events
across the country, including the
national finals, which are to be held in
Sydney on July 23.
During the week he is a cattle
buyer and stockman on the property
he manages — and dad to 15-monthold son Max.
He also raises bulls for rodeo and in
2014 his beast Bring It took out the
best bucking bull of the year.
His bull Enemies Everywhere is in
the running this year.
“Bulls are scored the same time
cowboys are and are judged on how
well they buck. They also get votes
from the cowboys,” he said.
But come the weekend, Russell
dons his protective outfit, which
includes a vest, forearm and elbow
guards, padded shorts, knee braces
and shin pads, to “fight bulls”.
It’s a job he takes pride in and a job
where he needs to stay fit.
“I couldn’t run a marathon, but I
could fight bulls all day,” he said.
And it’s a job he says not everyone
can do.
There are 200 protection athletes
Two left knee
reconstructions.
Broken left
foot bone.
Mitch with one of the bulls he breeds. Picture: NATHAN EDWARDS
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