I'm becoming myself more and more every day, says U.S. skater Brown

BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- While figure skaters worldwide have been trying to push the boundaries of what is physically possible with more rotations and longer spins, U.S. skater Jason Brown follows his own pace, a free-flowing and artistic one.

"I have had all the ups and downs throughout this sport, and I am so proud of my perseverance, my resilience," said the 27-year-old. "I am becoming myself more and more every day."

Together with American-born-Chinese star skaters Nathan Chen and Vincent Zhou, Brown will battle for men's podium spot in the upcoming Beijing 2022.

Starting to skate at the age of three and a half, Brown won the team bronze medal at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. But as an Olympian at a young age, he was under much pressure from others' expectations

"I started feeling I wasn't good enough. If I didn't have a certain technical content or if I wasn't able to perform at a certain level, it was almost like 'what's the point?'," recalled Brown. "It was this constant battle of trying to find success when I constantly felt like a failure."

Overwhelmed by the self-destructive thinking, he finished sixth at the national championships and failed to be a member of the PyeongChang Olympic team. The setback, however, gave him some time to change his mindset as well as coaching structure.

"It went back to, 'Why do I love the sport?'," said Brown, whose River Dance program in Sochi had went viral on YouTube with four million hits. "I had to go down that road. To be the athlete and the artist I can be."

Brown gradually picked himself up and saw his results improved. In the current season, he claimed the second-tier Finlandia Trophy and took medals in two ISU Grand Prix events, which compensated for his fourth-placed result at the national championships in early January.

With less than a week to go before the Beijing Winter Olympics, Brown looks forward to returning to his familiar stage. On Friday night he posted three photos on social media showing him skating with big smiles. "That look says it all! Final practice before heading to China," he wrote.