Japan’s Shoma Uno became the youngest man to win Skate America since 2002, while Jason Brown landed a quadruple jump en route to second place in Hoffman Estates, Ill., on Sunday.
Uno, the 18-year-old Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, landed three quadruple jumps in his free skate after planting two in his leading short program Saturday.
Uno fell on triple jumps in both programs but still scored 279.34 total points, prevailed by 10.96 over Brown and became the youngest man to win Skate America since France’s Brian Joubert in 2002.
Reigning U.S. champion Adam Rippon was third, flipping places with Brown after the short program. Full results are here.
Brown, the 2015 U.S. champion, totaled personal-best scores in the free skate (182.63) and overall (268.38) en route to his third straight Skate America medal. Brown matched his career-best Grand Prix finish.
Brown had never landed a clean, fully rotated quad in competition before, and while Sunday’s jump was called under-rotated, it was still a benchmark for the 21-year-old.
“To hit it and be like, ‘Oh my god, keep going, keep going,’” Brown said on NBC. “I just dreamed about landing that quad in the program. I felt like it kept getting closer, but today it finally hit. ... Now I know I can do it under pressure. I can do it skating last. I can do it at a Grand Prix, so I can do it anywhere.”
Rippon attempted one quad this weekend, falling in a free skate he said he had only been practicing for a week and a half.
“I’m pleased with what I did today,” Rippon said. “It was a strong program for October. ... This is a good start to the season, and I really want to build on this.”
Brown and Rippon positioned themselves well to become the first American men to qualify for the Grand Prix Final since Jeremy Abbott in 2011, should they be in podium contention at their next Grand Prix starts.
Rippon returns for Trophée de France in three weeks. Brown next competes at NHK Trophy in five weeks.
The Grand Prix season continues this week at Skate Canada, highlighted by world champion Yevgenia Medvedeva of Russia, Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and the Grand Prix return of 2010 Olympic ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada.
