ATLANTA - Michelle Kwan is just one of the old gang that is sticking around.<br>
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While Michael Weiss isn't making any commitments, the three-time national champion said he hopes to stick around through the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.<br>
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``I'm still kind of playing it year to year,'' said Weiss, who turned 27 in August. ``I certainly want to do that, if I continue to be competitive. I certainly don't want to go out there and not be competitive.<br>
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``I think for the next two years, if I can still have the desire and the passion to go out there and continue to train, (I will stay around) if I feel the way I do now about competing.''<br>
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Weiss talked in 2002 as if he was ready to try new things after the Salt Lake City Olympics. But he said he changed his mind because he was skating so well. Knowing that the world championships in his hometown of Washington, D.C., in 2003, didn't hurt, either.<br>
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Now Weiss said he's hanging around simply because he still enjoys competitive skating.<br>
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``Why go out when you still feel you can do better and you're skating well right now and you still feel there is more to do?'' he said. ``I still had a passion for competition and I still enjoyed it and I was still competitive. If I enjoy what I'm doing, why not continue to do it?''<br>
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And Weiss is still holding his own with the youngsters. He won his third U.S. title last year, and was fifth at the world championships. He won Skate America earlier this year, was third at the Grand Prix final and is a favorite to win the U.S. Figure Skating Championships this week.<br>
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DARK AGES: Technology has changed skiing, swimming, track and field and just about every other sport, making them completely different than they were even a decade ago.<br>
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Not skating. While the costumes and hairstyles have changed not necessarily for the better skaters are still using the same equipment they did when Sonja Henie first laced up a pair of boots.<br>
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``We're still screwing a piece of steel onto a piece of leather,'' three-time U.S. champion Michael Weiss said, laughing. ``It seems like skiing and all the other sports have really advanced with Kevlar and all these high-impact plastics, but skating has really stayed the same.''<br>
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Orthopedic surgeons and bootmakers actually have come up with new ideas for boots, using newer-age materials. But when skaters tried the prototypes, they said they preferred the old models.<br>
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``If it works,'' Weiss said, ``I guess don't change it.''<br>
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FILL-IN COACH: Tiffany Chin has a really good excuse for not being with pupil Beatrisa Liang at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships this week.<br>
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Chin, the 1985 national champion and a two-time bronze medalist at the world championships, is due to give birth to her first child in the next few weeks. But Chin found a very suitable fill-in. Don Laws, who was Chin's last coach, will be at the boards with Liang this week.
