“Once he hit that double full (flip) on top, landed it and skied on, it was a good run,” Bryon Sr. said about his son Bryon Wilson’s backflip with two twists taken at the top jump.

Make that a medal run.

Bryon Wilson Jr. won the bronze medal in the men’s moguls event Sunday at the Winter Olympics, making him the first Montana skier to win a medal in the freestyle event. And he did it before a throng of more than two dozen family and friends.

Wilson, after his first run, was in second position, trailing Australia’s Dale Begg-Smith, the reigning Olympic champion. The run sent the large group of Wilson supporters into a frenzy, but they still had two of the top mogul skiers in the world waiting to make their run. When Alexandre Bilodeau pulled off the same double full on the top jump and skied a fast run cleanly, he vaulted to the top of the leaderboard and bumped Wilson to third.

For the Wilsons, there was one more run, one last skier to attempt to claim a spot on the podium.

But Guilbot Colas, of France, ended up placing sixth. Let the party begin.

The Wilson entourage went wild, hugging and kissing and jumping in pure elation that their son, nephew or friend had earned a medal. All those years, all that work, all the sacrifices.

“This is what he’s been working for – he busted his butt all the way,” said Tom Renouard, Wilson’s uncle. “This is a dream come true for all of us.”

His mother Jeanette Wilson said she too knew that her son had brought his best stuff to the Olympics.

“His run was fantastic,” she said.

And Todd Hawke, a longtime family friend who, with his wife Bonnie, flew in at the last moment, said he was going out to celebrate with whiskey afterward. He said it wouldn’t be the cheap stuff, either.

Bryon Wilson was immediately taken for the flower ceremony held for freestyle medal winners. Then he was swallowed up in a sea of media people after the event, many of whom were focusing on Bilodeau for making history as the first Canadian to earn a gold medal at Games held on home soil.

But Wilson, too, was being interviewed, while his family and friends eagerly waited to see him.

Finally after nearly half an hour, an Olympics official grabbed Bryon Sr. and Jeanette and took them to their son inside the secure fenced area. Brad Wilson jumped the fence and followed to get to join the family celebration.

Later, Brad said his brother proved he can ski well in the ultimate competition. And with a little more speed on his run, Bryon could have wound up on top of the podium.

“He was one second away from the gold,” he said.

And Brad, who is one of the top junior mogul skiers in the nation, was quick to thank Butte for supporting the family.

“I’m awestruck,” he said. “I don’t know how someone from Butte, Montana, made it?

“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without the city of Butte.”