MAKING ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

Jason Brown will tell you he has never felt better about his skating than he did at the beginning of 2020, when he won back-to-back silver medals at the U.S. and Four Continents Championships.

The American, who calls the northern suburbs of Chicago home, is entering his third season of training at the Toronto Cricket Club, and his decision to relocate there in 2018 continues to look better with each passing day.

The gregarious 25-year-old from Highland Park, Illinois, speaks with a combination of enthusiasm and gratitude about everything that has come his way since coming under the wings of Tracy Wilson and Brian Orser at the Toronto Cricket Club.

“I felt like I was soaring last season, and I really had made these big strides,” Brown told IFS in late September.

“I was able to go to the U.S. Championships at the end of last season, and I got a silver medal. I was so proud.

“I felt like I was soaring last season and I really had made these big strides.”

“I went to Four Continents a week later and I was feeling so strong. I was hitting quad toes at every single practice session. I felt great. I really felt like I was in my stride. It was incredible to get a silver medal there as well.”

If not for the COVID-19 pandemic, which essentially shut down the entire sporting world in mid-March, Brown remains convinced the roll he was on would have extended to the 2020 World Championships in Montréal.

It is a thought that remains very much in his mind as he builds toward this new season.

Heading into Worlds, Brown said he honestly believed he was in the best shape he had ever been in his entire career, and was feeling stronger and more prepared than he had ever been before.

“That is really driving me right now, to get back to that point,” he said. “Even though I have only been back on the ice for eight weeks, I keep thinking I want to get back to that place. After you get a taste of what that is like, you don’t want to lose it.”

It was an adventure of a far different kind just returning to where he is today — back on the ice in Toronto, training under the watchful eyes of his coaching team, with a determination to continue that upward curve.

Wilson sees a student who remains as eager as ever to see what is around the next corner. “He’s really grown in so many ways. First of all, he’s really