No, I've never skated myself, but I always wanted to, and I've watched and studied the sport for many decades. I've had lots of favorites through the years.
Michael Weiss is definitely the most artistic and expressive of our current men's group, but his technical prowess has been ebbing for years. He won the national championship last year by default simply because NO ONE skated well in the finals. I hate years like that, when the entire championship is an embarrassment to the sport. Hopefully, we'll see some new stars emerge this year. That's always exciting, when an Aren Nielsen or Scott Davis or Mark Mitchell comes out of nowhere and does a wonderful program. I'll never forget being so impressed with Tonya Harding in an early performance. Little did I know how dreadful her later skating (and behind the scenes graft) would become.