SALADO, Texas (KWTX) – This New Year’s weekend, a young Central Texas woman returned to her hometown as a world champion bull rider.

20-year-old Salado native Catalina Langlitz says she’s never been happier to start off a new year as the WBRO Women’s Bull Riding world champion, but where did her love of the rodeo come from?

“I started on sheep when I was little with a competition that I won,” she said.

“Then, when I was 12, I had a bet with my friends to see how long I could stay on a bull. My dad’s a bull rider, too so I thought why not? I ended up doing it with no spurs or gloves and lasting the whole 8 seconds on there and I had a lot of fun.”

That fun and rush of adrenaline hasn’t stopped. While she was competing in several rodeo’s this past year, a foot injury had her questionable to return. Even so, she saddled up.

“My horse stepped on my foot and broke the top bones on my foot,” she said.

“I didn’t do my best at the finals because I was coming off the foot surgery three days before that, but I still had all the points.”

Since winning, she’s garnered lots of attention from her community on social media. While she’s flattered by the attention and happy to be resting her foot, Langlitz is already preparing for another season.

“It’s adrenaline pumping for sure, like hardcore,” she said.

“I’m gonna ride bulls for at least a couple of more years because I won the world title… I might as well try to win it again, you know?”

Written by Alex Gibbs