Just three months before he won the 2024 world championship, Utah bareback rider Dean Thompson made a big-time ride during Utah’s Own PRCA Rodeo. This past April, he was diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma. He underwent treatment and feels confident the cancer has gone, so he has returned to bareback riding.
(PHOTO BY ALEXIS CADY)
Bareback riding champ is back in action after spurring the disease
SALT LAKE CITY – In December 2024, Dean Thompson arrived at his second National Finals Rodeo, then lit Las Vegas on fire.
He won just shy of $240,000 in 10 days of riding bareback horses and finished his year as one of three Utah world champions, joining bull rider Josh Frost and saddle bronc rider Ryder Wright. He was on top of the world, living out a life he could only dream about before.
Sixteen months later, though, his life shifted. He was involved in a bareback riding wreck in Cave Creek, Arizona, and opted to stop by the hospital in Park City, Utah, to check things out. He underwent tests, and scans revealed a mass in his neck.
His focus quickly shifted, and he left his rigging at his Altamont, Utah, home for a different ride, this time at Intermountain Health LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City in a battle with Burkitt’s Lymphoma. He went through rounds of chemotherapy. The poison did its job, ridding him of the disease, but it also sapped his energy and his strength.
Just last month, Thompson rang the bell at LDS Hospital. He wanted everyone to know the cancer is gone, and he got back to the business of riding bucking horses. He’s still building back his strength, but he has already returned to the arena.
He’s expected to be part of the field at Utah’s Own Rodeo, set for 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11; Saturday, Sept. 12; and Monday, Sept. 14, in the Days of ’47 Arena at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City. Tickets can be purchased at UtahStateFair.com/tickets.
“It’s crazy to think about the stuff you take for granted that you miss,” said Thompson, a three-time NFR qualifier who rode last week in Hermiston, Oregon, his first time on a bucking horse in three months. “Then you reflect on it, and it’s like, holy cow, I’ve got another shot at life.”
That, he does. While most wait a year or two to ring the bell because there is a chance cancer will return, Thompson is confident in his doctors, treatment and faith. Some of that has to do with Burkitt’s Lymphoma; patients with it either live with the cancer or be cured of it.
“As of right now, zero results showed up on my PET scan, so there’s less than a 10 percent chance that it returns,” he told ProRodeo Sports News. “Usually with people that have this cancer, once they are cured, it never comes back. To hear that it’s a 90 percent chance that you’re on your way, that’s incredible in cancer terms.”
That’s why he’s back under a rigging, continuing to strengthen his talent and his mind while he’s also proving the power of his faith.