Jason Brown's 'year of yes:' His return to competition, Olympic lessons and being tapped for Hanyu's new show

Jason Brown is calling this his “year of yes.”

After the American figure skater put his focus and energy into qualifying for his second Olympics at Beijing 2022, Brown has “taken the blinders off” from that singular approach as he’s explored a variety of opportunities that have come his way post-Games.

But the 28-year-old is just as curious as skating fans are as to what comes next for him.

“Only time will tell,” he told Olympics.com about his pending return to the ice. “But what I can say is that every opportunity that I've taken has just made me more motivated to compete, and has given me more energy... versus feeling like I'm continually getting depleted.”

The U.S. Figure Skating Championships this weekend (26-29 January) in San Jose, Calif., will be his first official competition since the Olympic Winter Games, the 2015 national champion having skipped the international Grand Prix Series in the first half of the season.

In an exclusive interview, he detailed a challenging road to Beijing that indeed left him feeling depleted, though he finished in a career-best sixth place there having been ninth at Sochi 2014.

He’s trying a new path now, skating in some 50 shows and with various tours through the summer months in the U.S., Japan and beyond, mixing in his show skating with competition practices.

It’s a balance he’s curious to see if he can maintain for... well, however long it remains feasible.

“I can't keep up with the level of training that I did when I was competing the entire year,” Brown said of his on-ice regimen. “But I also know that I have more in me. So this was a way to keep pushing, keep getting to perform, keep staying in shape... After the year ends, we'll see how plausible it is. But if it is, then I would love to continue skating. I love it.”

Jason Brown returns to San Jose with a new mindset

This weekend’s return is one with many meanings for Brown, who will compete in the same venue in San Jose where he failed to make the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic team, finishing in a disappointing sixth place.

“When I competed in San Jose in 2018 it was really tough... I kind of imploded,” Brown recalled. “I wanted to go back to prove to myself that I have the courage to step back into that arena, a place that has terrified and haunted me the last five years.”

He added: “There is a bit of me that felt like I wanted redemption there this year.”

How, exactly, Brown will perform under the pressures of a judged event is something he and coaches Tracy Wilson and Brian Orser are willing – and wanting – to find out. His outcome at nationals could help dictate an on-ice path moving forward, where Brown is open to a mix of exhibition show skating and a routine of competition-based training and events.

Even, he said, with Milano Cortina 2026 being a possibility.

“Four years is a long time to think [ahead],” Brown said with a laugh. “I think it's a constant ebb and flow. If I do this, if can I still train, still compete... then I think it’s constantly about having to ask the question and be open to continuing [to it].”

Brown went back to his blinder analogy, describing the kind of mental and emotional focus it took to ready and qualify for Beijing.

“If I were to put myself into the mindset of the next four years, [of] going to put the blinders back on... I don't have that in me,” he said. “So it would have to be an alternative way.”

Reflecting on Beijing – and skating in the now

It’s quad Axel-jumping teenager Ilia Malinin who will be the favourite at the forthcoming U.S. Championships, the 18-year-old who made his splash at the same event a year ago and disrupted the Team USA Olympic team selection process with a surprise silver medal finish there.

He was ahead of Brown (4^th) and third-place finisher Vincent Zhou at that event, but Malinin had nearly no international experience on his CV, and Brown had turned in a strong season, winning two medals on the Grand Prix after finishing seventh at Worlds in 2021.

The swirl of discussion around Brown’s Olympic selection followed him to Beijing, he said, and shook what he thought had been a strong foundation around him and his team: “The thing that I'm most proud of with the Olympics in Beijing was the way that I was able to skate and just go out there and do my thing,” he said.

“I felt like I was constantly having to fight critics and constantly trying to prove myself,” he added. “But once I stepped on the ice, I was like, ‘I’ve worked too hard... let all of that fade away and just do your job.’ I had too much self-respect for my team and what we put in.

“As an experience, it was really hard.”

Brown has been open in the past about the work he’s done with his mental health, and he said that he’s thankful for addressing that part of him as an athlete to handle such situations – including what Beijing brought up.

It’s part of why he’s not sure of what comes next, and why is he focused on not obsessing over trying to figure it out before it happens.

“I love the route we're going on but I'm constantly having these conversations with [coach] Tracy, 'Did this work? Did that not work?' ‘Okay, that fueled me and that didn't... ‘” he said.

“There’s those constant conversations happening. If I can pull off this year – and I don’t mean that as results-based – I mean, 'Can I do it in a healthy way? Am I motivated? Do I love it?' And if so, and I can do it with this way of being balanced, then I don't see myself stopping or having a hard stop. But that is yet to be seen.”

Brown on skating Hanyu Yuzuru’s ‘notte stellata’ show

Earlier this month, two-time Olympic champion Hanyu Yuzuru unveiled that he would do a special skating show in his hometown of Sendai, Japan, commemorating the 12^th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster which devastated the region in 2011.

It’s called “notte stellata”, which in Italian means “starry night” and is an ode to the still sky above Miyagi Prefecture in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.

Brown – along with a small group of other skaters – has been asked to participate in the show.

“I got an email in my inbox and as soon as I read it I was like, ‘Yes, yes, yes, I'm there for you,’” Brown explained. “The whole concept of the show is about creating a bright future and putting pieces together that are uplifting and motivating. I was like, ‘Done. I’m 100 percent with you.’ And I just know how much it means to [Hanyu]. It was a very, very exciting email to receive and a very easy one to respond to.”

Hanyu and Brown shared training ice at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club for two years while competing on the international circuit together.

“It was really amazing to get to train with him for two years and have that opportunity to go from this kind of this enclosed training environment to then see him out at competitions and being like, ‘Wow.’”

He said of Hanyu influence on the sport and beyond: “He’s become this force and he's so influential. What he's created and the reach it has... it’s unbelievable. It’s hard to describe why someone has that ‘it’ factor. People are drawn to him.”

Brown was on a Japanese tour when the news broke that Hanyu was retiring from competitive skating, and he said you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing TV screens covered in the news, his face splashed on newspapers and magazines.

“I think I cannot be more grateful to have competed in his era,” Brown added. “And so the fact that I get to continue on and do that professionally, I’m really grateful. What he brings to the sport and the way that he has drawn in such a fan base, my hat's off to him and what he's doing. I cannot wait to see [the show] and be a part of something that he puts together on the professional side.”

Jason Brown: Skating in the moment

Is this the last time fans see Brown on competitive ice?

Even he’s not sure of that. And he’s OK with it.

“There isn't the same weight that I have on myself” as I did in the past, he said. “Whether I make the world team or I don't make the world team, [win a] medal at nationals or don't, my approach is now an in-the-moment kind of a thing,” he said.

The Hanyu show is set for 10-12 March, with the World Championships scheduled for just over a week later in Saitama, Japan. Could Brown be potentially making the to Japan trip for both?

“The good, the bad, whatever. I'm happy to be out there loving what I'm doing. It's a win-win type of a situation.”