It wasn’t always easy getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning to go to the rink. Sometimes I wanted to just go back to sleep.

Kerrigan’s remark underscores the unglamorous routine behind elite athletic performance: success is built less on momentary inspiration than on repeated, early, uncomfortable choices. The specific detail—5 a.m. rink sessions—evokes the discipline demanded by figure skating, where ice time is scarce and training must fit around school, work, and coaching schedules. By admitting she sometimes wanted to go back to sleep, she normalizes reluctance and fatigue rather than mythologizing talent. The quote’s significance lies in its quiet realism: perseverance is not the absence of resistance, but the decision to continue despite it, day after day.