MEDAL FOR MCMORRIS

Mark McMorris was an overnight sensation.

A rapt television audience stayed up until nearly 4 a.m., Saskatchewan time, to watch the Regina snowboarder earn a bronze medal Saturday at the Winter Olympic Games in Russia.

The 20-year-old rider’s good name was trending on Twitter in the nocturnal hours. Suddenly, the sporting world as we know it had stopped for an event known as men’s slopestyle.

Every trick, every triple cork, every touch of the oversized Russian doll, provided engrossing viewing fare during this landmark McMorn-ing — which included another airing of CBC’s superb documentary on McMorris, “Making Your Mark.’’

And when it all was over, after an assortment of thrills and some periodic spills, Canada had its first medal of these Games.

The mettle was also on display, given the pure guts that helped McMorris reach the podium. Preternatural skill didn’t hurt, either.

Actually, everything hurt. It had to.

McMorris’s easygoing demeanour and seemingly effortless performance camouflaged the fact that he competed with a broken rib, suffered two weeks earlier at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo.

Unfazed, McMorris quickly jetted overseas and vowed to compete in an event that was making its Olympic debut.

The qualification round, held on Thursday, did not play out as McMorris had hoped but, again, he shrugged off adversity.

McMorris could have punched his ticket to the final in the qualification round, but no such luck. Instead, he had to qualify via the semifinals. After a disappointing first run, he needed to nail the second. Of course, he did.

A comparable scenario unfolded in the final. McMorris fell on his opening run, meaning that a medalcalibre second go-round was imperative.

We already gave away the ending. McMorris registered a score of 88.75 points that placed him second at the time. He held on for the bronze, and later told TSN that it was “the best thirdplace finish ever.’’

And, really, who could argue?

McMorris ascended to the podium after repeatedly making clutch jumps, enduring unimaginable discomfort in the process.

At the Fieldhouse the other day, I ran into someone who had broken a rib. “I couldn’t do anything for a month,’’ he told me, still wincing at the thought.

Yet, there was McMorris, performing mid-air contortions and enduring impactful landings while matching tricks with the best in the world.

He emerged with an omnipresent grin, shrugging off suggestions that his final run should have been appraised more favourably by the judges — even though he had questioned the judging after the qualification round.

Sage Kotsenburg of Park City, Utah, won the gold medal with a top score of 93.50. Norway’s Staale Sandbech placed second at 91.75, bumping McMorris to third on the second-last run.

McMorris had executed a pair of triple corks on his final run at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. However, the twin triples — impressive as they were — were not appraised at the 90-plus level by the judges.

“A lot of people were talking about my score being low, but that is the least of my worries,’’ McMorris told the Denver Post. “I just wanted to go big and land clean and do technical tricks.

“And you gotta be happy with the way you ride ... it’s up to the judges and you can’t do anything about them.’’

The public was the judge in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

McMorris did not need to win over anyone who followed his exploits at the X Games, at which he won gold medals in slopestyle in 2012 and 2013 before recently placing second.

But the X Games is an insulated environment compared to the grand stage provided by the Olympics, at which events such as slopestyle have been thrust into the mainstream.

Even when the clock is about to strike four in the middle of the night, and even when the terminology is foreign to many first-time viewers, the event is irresistible and the images are compelling.

Especially when a local boy makes good.

Regina’s Trent Fraser got up very early — while vacationing in Jamaica — to watch someone land in snow.

“It was worth it,’’ Fraser said via Twitter.

Kudos were also extended on Twitter by luminaries such as hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser, golfer Graham DeLaet, Toronto Maple Leafs centre Tyler Bozak, Edmonton Oilers rightwinger Jordan Eberle and Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks punter Jon Ryan — other Saskatchewan athletes who have accomplished so much.

The Grey Cup-champion Saskatchewan Roughriders even chimed in on Twitter, offering a hearty congratulations and adding that “we are proud of you.’’

Thanks to McMorris, rider pride isn’t just a football term. Not anymore.