Traveling to attend the 2022 U.S. Championships with coach Tracy Wilson proved to be an odyssey for Brown due to five different flight cancellations that had him in transit for thirty-three hours, culminating in a rental car trip from Atlanta to Nashville. Despite this, he skated a clean short program and placed fourth in that segment, narrowly behind third-place Ilia Malinin. On the morning of the free skate, Wilson tested positive for COVID and could not accompany him to the event; Brown tested negative the same day. In the free skate, he fell on his opening quad Salchow attempt but landed the rest of his jumps. Normally regarded as one of the best spinners in the world, on one of his three free skate spins, he lost two levels, which made the difference between third and fourth overall as he finished 0.38 points behind bronze medalist Vincent Zhou. Per the selection criteria for the American Olympic team, Zhou and national champion Nathan Chen were guaranteed berths, with the third to be decided between Brown and 17-year-old surprise silver medalist Ilia Malinin. The committee ultimately chose Brown. On Malinin, he said, "there's nothing I can say that can encompass how he might be feeling at this moment. What I can say is he is beyond out of this world, and U.S. figure skating is so lucky to have such a bright future with Ilia." For his part, Brown said that it had been "a really tough go to get here. Not just in the last 72 hours, but in the last four years and everything leading up to this point and me kind of turning a page after 2018."
