My dad worked several jobs to pay for my expense in skating.

Kerrigan’s remark underscores the hidden economic reality behind elite amateur sport: talent and discipline are necessary, but sustained family financing often makes participation possible. By emphasizing her father’s multiple jobs, she frames her skating career as a collective family project marked by sacrifice, not simply personal ambition. The line also functions as a quiet rebuttal to the glamour associated with Olympic figure skating, pointing instead to working-class perseverance and the emotional weight of parental support. Implicitly, it expresses gratitude while acknowledging the pressure such sacrifices can place on an athlete to “justify” the cost through success.