Following in the footsteps of Jenny Jones who won snowboard slopestyle bronze in Sochi, Morgan held his nerve on the final two jumps while some of the biggest names in the sport couldn’t handle the pressure.
In qualifying, Morgan sat on the bubble of the top six for most of the second round before his place in the final was secured. And then in the final he had to watch almost the entire field complete its third run to see if he would hang onto the final place on the podium.
Morgan went big on his first trick but couldn’t stick the landing meaning he needed to make his next two tricks count.
Billy Morgan
He did exactly that, scoring 82.50 in the second round followed by 85.50 on his final run, the fourth-highest scoring jump in the competition and the highest score in the last round.
Sitting provisionally in the bronze medal position, the 28-year-old – who was the oldest snowboarder in the competition – watched on as one-by-one his score held strong and he secured the GB Park & Pipe team’s second medal of the Games following Izzy Atkin’s ski slopestyle bronze last week.
Canada’s Sebastien Toutant (174.25) won gold ahead of USA’s Kyle Mack (168.75) who finished less than a point ahead of Morgan (168.00).
Morgan said Olympic bronze provides a reward for a long career which has included world-first tricks but few trips to the podium.
“It’s the payoff. I’ve done this for a long time and I haven’t got that many medals,” said Morgan “I’ve got a bronze in the X-Games… I thought that would be my big thing, but it looks like this is it.
Billy Morgan celebrates with some of his GB team mates.
“I’m lucky today – I feel really lucky. A lot of the guys out there that were riding normally just hammer it. I didn’t come into this contest thinking I’d do this well. It’s blown my mind.
“I was pretty bummed after slopestyle especially having bad luck… maybe I got some of that back.”
Morgan’s medal takes Team GB’s PyeongChang tally to five, making it officially Britain’s most-successful Olympic Winter Games.
** Meanwhile, Great Britain has finished equal fifth in the inaugural Olympic Alpine Team event at Yongpyong Alpine Centre.
Alex Tilley and Dave Ryding recorded victories in the first round to help Team GB to a 2-all score against powerhouse USA, however the combined best times of the British pair were superior and moved them into the quarter-finals.
Again, Tilley and Ryding won their match-ups in their final-eight showdown with Norway, however this time the tie-breaking combined times went the other way and the Brits went down by 0.21 seconds.
The result is officially Britain’s best Olympic alpine skiing result in half a century and the second best of all time, only bettered by Gina Hathorn’s fourth place in the slalom at Innsbruck 1968.