LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – There are some who would presume that Jason Brown’s universal acclaim as a performer would be enough accolades for him.

That could not be further from the truth.

“I’m competitive, and I really want people to take me seriously,” Brown said.

That means getting good results as well as the loud applause he heard throughout his 2-minute, 45-second short program at Saatva Skate America, the U.S. stop on the sport’s Grand Prix Series.

To do that, Brown cannot have mistakes like those on two flawed triple jumps. They left him in a distant 5th place in a field of 12 heading into the free skate, when those ahead of him will have even more wiggle room because there are more jumping passes to use for quads.

Perfection is a goal for others among figure skating’s elite. For Brown, it is a necessity if he is to have a chance against the jumpers whose skills are more prized by the sport’s current scoring system, so they can afford a minor error (or even two in a free skate.)

“It’s definitely frustrating,” he said. “Every time I go out on the ice, I know that to be up there with the best, I have to be as perfect and as clean as possible.

“So, yeah, those marks are frustrating. Those Qs (jumps judged a quarter rotation short) or those under rotations add up. They hit me pretty hard.”

Brown got 82.69 points, his lowest short program score in three competitions this season. Kazuki Tomono of Japan led with 95.77, followed by Kevin Aymoz of France (93.56) and Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan (89.67)

It’s not as if Brown can’t be close to the best. He has had top-10 finishes in all seven of his appearances at the world championships. That includes a fourth place and two fifths.

In the season before the upcoming 2026 Olympics and the one before the 2018 Winter Games, his finish at worlds allowed Team USA to earn the maximum three spots in men’s singles. Brown hopes to get one of those spots so he can compete at a third Olympics, having finished ninth in 2014 (where he also brought home bronze in the team event) and sixth in 2022.

“I’m really proud of my consistency and longevity,” said Brown, who turns 31 in December.

He had the bad luck to come along when the quad revolution took the sport by storm. Brown’s inability to cleanly land a quad jump not only made getting points a bigger challenge for him but led those inclined to see only results to think of him in lesser terms, no matter his sense of music, his breathtaking footwork, his dazzling spins.

“It’s, 'You get a medal, or you failed,’" Brown said.

“There are so many times in my career that I felt so discouraged, felt I can't keep up or that what I bring to the sport isn't being valued. I was (eventually) finding different ways to feel successful, whether that's, 'Hey, I'm so proud of a top-10 finish,' or, 'I'm going to be that second guy to help so that we can have three spots.'"

Brown dodges the question of whether this is his last season as a competitor, finally having answered with a no when he thought about stopping after the 2018 and 2022 seasons.

“I never want to put a hard stop on anything,” he said

Yet he has celebrated his career by bringing back the music, “Reel Around the Sun” from Riverdance, that made him an instant sensation in 2014 (and brought 3.6 million YouTube views, when such numbers were unheard of for a figure skater).

It was his free skate music back then. Now it is the short program, more than a minute shorter but just as entrancing. He never before had tried to reinvent a program.

“It’s my opportunity to just say thank you to the fans for all their years of support,” Brown said. “They have been with me through such incredible highs and lows. This is like a tribute [to them].”

He knows it would be an even-nicer tribute if performed flawlessly.

Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at every Winter Olympics since 1980, is a special contributor to NBCOlympics.com.