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Jason Brown Earns Comeback Gold Medal In Finlandia Trophy

by Todd Kortemeier

Jason Brown skates in the Men's Free Skate during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on January 17, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

 

Jason Brown was nearly sitting in gold-medal position after the short program at the Finlandia Trophy, but lost out via tiebreak to Keegan Messing of Canada. 


When it came time for Friday’s free skate, Brown outdueled Messing and the rest of the men’s field in Espoo, Finland, to take the gold medal. Skating to music from the film “Schindler’s List,” Brown scored 170.13 to take fifth place in the free skate and clinch the overall gold with a score of 262.52. Russians Mikhail Kolyada and Dmitri Aliev finished second and third, respectively.

Brown was all smiles on social media following his triumph.


 

 




“Massive thanks to the incredible Finnish audience,” Brown wrote on Twitter. “Having the opportunity to perform in front of a crowd again filled my heart! Thank you for the memories.”


Brown, a team bronze medalist at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, placed seventh at the world championships earlier this year and was the bronze medalist at the U.S. Championships. The 26-year-old from Highland Park, Illinois, was skating at his first event of the 2021-22 season as he works toward making a second U.S. Olympic Team.


Brown’s medal gives the U.S. four gold and eight total medals thus far in the 2021–22 ISU Challenger Series, in which the Finlandia Trophy was the fourth event. In Finland, Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc took bronze in pairs with medals in women’s and ice dancing still to be awarded.

 

Todd Kortemeier

Todd Kortemeier is a sportswriter, editor and children’s book author from Minneapolis. He is a contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.