Jason Brown reacts during the men's single skating short program at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on Feb. 8, 2022 in Beijing.
The question on skating fans’ lips: Will Jason Brown compete again?
His answer? Maybe.
“Ever since I moved to Toronto, it’s been about this exact moment,” Brown told reporters in the mixed zone after his sixth-place finish in the men’s figure skating event Tuesday at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
“So, I have no idea,” he added. “It’s not something we’ve had any conversations about. It is not something I’ve allowed myself to think past. It would be really hard to mentally wrap my brain around coming to these Olympics and thinking, ‘This is my final event.’”
At a press conference on Wednesday, he again begged off.
“It’s not as clean cut as, ‘No, this is my last event.’ Time will tell,” he said.
At 27, the skater from Highland Park, Illinois, is the oldest singles’ competitor on Team USA’s roster, five years senior to Nathan Chen, the newly crowned Olympic champion. Brown is far from the oldest in the event, though; six of the men who competed in Beijing are his elder.
Applying pressure ✅@jasonbskates dazzles us all with his free skate performance. #WinterOlympics
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) February 8, 2022
pic.twitter.com/MbVReNmL4j
Brown’s senior international career stretches back to the 2013-14 season, when he leapfrogged other contenders to qualify for the Sochi Games, where he placed ninth and won a team bronze medal.
That season’s free skate to “Riverdance” went viral, garnering millions of views on YouTube. It encapsulated everything that set Brown’s skating apart: expressive body movements, supreme musicality, total commitment to performance — modern dance on ice.
“Eight years ago, it was the start,” Brown said. “It was incredible, right place at the right time. (I) ended up on that Olympic team at 19 years old. It felt like I was invincible at that point. And it was ‘anything could happen’ and I had this big, bright future.”
Want to follow Team USA athletes during the Olympic Games Beijing 2022? Visit TeamUSA.org/Beijing-2022-Olympic-Games to view the competition schedule, medal table and results.