The thing that I am looking at is that his worst SP score of his senior career is is 76.32. Max's personal best is is only 78.96. Dornbush's short PB is actually 83.01, but his total PB is only 237.28 (Max's is 240.22). Jason's total for SA & COR were 234.17 and 235.56 respectively. So basically a "disappointing" season for Jason means scores that are actually competitive with our other top skaters when they are at their best. Umm. . . I think that is pretty damn impressive!
He has also had a weird season. One of the articles regarding Shep Goldberg said that his lack of attendance at Skate America was when people first started thinking he may not be doing well. So his health likely was affecting Jason at that event too. Jason likely had far too many well meaning people asking him what was wrong. Leaving Jason to either have to lie if he did know more, or be reminded that he does not know what is going on with his agent. Either way, not fun, and a likely added stress that others did not have to face. And that is on top of the added attention he was dealing with for it being in Chicago. It really would have been nice for him to get to compete in a more normal grand prix competition this season.
At the same time it likely is good practice to learn to skate with horrible pressie, as 2018 is going to be a nightmare. Dick Button is the only USA male to win two Olympic medals, granted there were both gold, but still only two. Beatrix Loughran has won three medals, but she is both a female and one of the medals was in pairs (no gold). Davis and White have three, but they are not individual skaters (one of each). So with Jason's bronze from Sochi, and assuming team USA does not completely implode on itself and still has a strong shot at a team medal, if Jason is a legitimate contender for any individual medal (not at all unrealistic) the line we are going to be hearing all season is going to be a variation of "Can Jason Brown become the most decorated Olympic singles/male (depending on how they choose to interpret Beatrix and if somehow Ashley or Gracie make it) in USA history!?"
Kinda crazy hugh? Hell, two golds are not completely out of the realm of possibility which would put him ahead of Davis and White! Or at least he could be marketed as such. Obviously it is a bit different with the team event, but a medal is a medal. Team medals count in other sports, anyway you slice it or spin it, he has a chance to come out of 2018 with more Olympic medals than any other guy from America in history. Assuming nothing comes along to derail him, the potential hype going in to Pyonchang could be either really nasty or really awesome depending on how you look at it. Maybe the stressful attention of this season will help him to be more able to cope with what is to come.
I think a lot of people think his goals are about 2015, and forget that really team Jason is about 2018. If you look at it somehow only for the season, maybe i can see some of the disappointment. If you look it as a skater still only on their second year as a senior who is looking to establish himself at the start of a new quad for the entire quad, it looks a lot better. I don't see a skater on a downward slide, I see a skater who is pushing himself to grow still, and issues are being addressed as they come up.
I would say he has laid down a pretty solid argument that he should be on the team for worlds this year which is plenty good enough for me this year. Only Dornbush has a chance at having a better season (well technically Jeremy, but he would have to get Gold in Japan to beat Jason, or Silver to tie which I am just not too optimistic about).
Speaking of Ricky Richard. I was watching one of the videos from his appearance at world's when he was 19 (Jason's age), the commenters were clucking about him not trying a quad. And his quad is looking pretty good this year, so yes nay sayers guys can still get it. I half want some guy to land a quint just so we can maybe stop blathering on about quads, but that likely will not happen.
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Thanks 4 sharing!
