“Chicago is my home, and to be at Skate America and skating in front of a home crowd was just amazing,” he said after the free skate. “I had a few slips but I was fighting through the whole thing; I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of the integrity of the program. I’m really excited about the way I recovered.” Canada’s World Junior champion Nam Nguy- en landed a quadruple Salchow in his free skate to win the bronze medal. Four-time U.S. champion Jeremy Abbott was
second to Machida in the short program, but dou- bled or singled several intended triple jumps in his free skate to finish fifth with 219.33 points. “I’m obviously disappointed with how I skat-
ed, but I think it’s still good steps forward,” Abbott said. “Tis was just more mileage to the rest of the season. I think the most important competition for me is Worlds.” Douglas Razzano, sixth in the U.S. last season,
was eighth overall after falling on two jumps in his short program. He regrouped to place fifth in the free skate.
“Tings weren’t perfect, but you know what? I
made them work,” Razzano said. “I didn’t give in, I fought through it.”
Spreading that skating spirit BY LYNN RUTHERFORD
When Paula Ellison’s daughters, Lauren, 15,
and Tamia, 13, began skating at Monument’s Col- orado Sports Center last May, Paula didn’t know what to expect.
Te facility wasn’t famous for its figure skat-
ing program, at least not yet. Te lobby wasn’t as fancy as that of some other rinks. (It has since been remodeled.) Her girls missed their former training partners. But Monument had a secret weapon: Ja- son Brown. “He is such a positive force,” Ellison said.
“From the start, he engaged the girls as much as he could. He sits with them, skates with them, claps along to their music. He even knows what compe- titions they’re doing and texts them to say, ‘Great job!’
“He makes them feel good.” Tat’s Brown’s gift: He loves to skate, and he
loves to share that love with others. “Everything about him is genuine,” Brown’s
coach of 12 years, Kori Ade, said. “He’s doing it for the daily grind. He gets charged up just knowing he has the opportunity to skate every day. Tat’s what is so special. His energy is high because of his general gratitude to do what he loves to do.” Even when Brown makes a mistake — like
falling on a triple Axel in his short program to Lit- tle Walter’s “Juke” at Skate America — he bounces back up and delivers the rest of his performance like nothing happened. “You have a choice: Do you let a fall affect
you, or do you try to get every single point you can get out of the rest of your program?” Brown, 19, said. “Te way I look at it, I’m going to get up and I’m going to finish strong.” Fans in Hoffman Estates, just 25 miles from
16 DECEMBER 2014 Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier
where Brown grew up in Highland Park, didn’t mind the fall. Some 1,200 of them were skaters, parents and friends from Brown’s former training rinks. After the skater tweeted that gifts would be sent to area children’s charities, flower sweepers car- ried 13 large garbage bags of stuffed animals off the ice.
Little Walter’s daughter, Marion Diaz Reacco, established the Little Walter Foundation in Chi- cago to preserve the legacy of her father, a legend- ary blues harmonica player. Brown’s performance moved her to tears of joy. Reacco had never been to a live skating event
before. Now, she is a fan. “It’s a new program for me, a new sport added
to my category,” she said. “I can’t help but like it.” “Juke” — and Brown’s dramatic free skate to
Maxime Rodriguez’s tragic “Tristan and Iseult” — follows on the heels of last season’s Riverdance pro- gram, which made Brown an overnight YouTube sensation. Tey’re all of different genres, something Rohene Ward, Brown’s longtime choreographer, thinks helps to keep the skater’s appeal fresh. “Jason is like a musical chameleon; you don’t
want to put him into a box,” Ward said. “You never outdo what you did last season, you make new. All you can do is create new magic and stay in the mo- ment.”
Both Ellison sisters competed well at South-
western Regionals, qualifying for Midwestern Sec- tionals — Lauren as a junior, Tamia as a novice. Paula Ellison gives some of the credit to Brown. “We need his spirit around; it helps every-
body,” Paula Ellison said. “Tere’s a lot to like about the rink in Monument and a lot of it comes from Jason.”
PAIRS
Denney and Frazier break through with silver Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier finished
with the silver medal, giving the U.S. its best pairs finish at a Grand Prix Series event since 2008. Te team, which trains in Florida, winners
of the 2013 World Junior title, placed third in the short program and second in the free skate with a combined score of 183.84. It was their first Grand Prix medal in two years on the senior circuit. “I’m really proud of that,” Frazier said. “Tat’s something that if you do your job, the result will come. It gives us motivation.” Te veteran Russian team of Yuko Kavaguti
and Alexander Smirnov secured the gold medal with 209.16 points. Tey executed the extremely difficult throw quad Salchow as the third element in their free skate. Kavaguti and Smirnov finished fourth at the
2010 Olympics, have two World bronze medals and have competed together since 2006. Te Chinese team of Cheng Peng and Hao Zhang claimed the bronze medal with 182.43 points.
Colorado-based Alexa Scimeca and Chris Kn- ierim finished fourth with 168.62 points. Te team experienced problems on their side-by-side jumps and the throw triple loop in their free skate. “I’m not really sure [what went wrong],” Sci- meca said. “I don’t think we’ve ever been more pre- pared for a competition and to skate with errors was very discouraging. It kind of leaves us with ‘What are we supposed to do?’ because we were prepared and we were in the right mindset going into it. It’s
JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
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