There is no age, height, or weight requirement to skate. It is good exercise no matter what your age is. If you want to be competitive, most start young. But, I practice with many adult competitors.
Nancy KerriganI was a tomboy who liked to play rough just like my two older brothers. That's probably why I liked the athletic part of skating - especially the jumping!
Nancy KerriganI get to see the different sides of skating now which involves not only competing, but entertainment.
Nancy KerriganMy parents never pressured me to skate. They always said I could quit if I wanted to. They only expected me to skate when they had already paid for the expensive lessons. But, otherwise they said I could do what I wanted to do.
Nancy KerriganIt 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.
Nancy KerriganBut after a few minutes of convincing myself that I really wanted to go - telling myself that I love skating and that my coach is there waiting for me - I would get up and go. And my mother would always get up and eat breakfast with me!
Nancy KerriganPart of being a champ is acting like a champ. You have to learn how to win and not run away when you lose.
Nancy KerriganI took group lessons at a rink near my home. We first had to learn how to stand up on the ice wearing skates. Eventually we learned to move forward, but soon found out that it was not that easy to stop! So that was our next important lesson.
Nancy KerriganI was thrilled one year when I was younger when not only did my brothers get hockey sticks for Christmas - but I did too!
Nancy KerriganPeople would ask me why I was doing what I was doing - but I always told them that I just loved to skate. There was no other explanation.
Nancy KerriganOne of the things I like best about the Halloween show is that I change outfits about six times in the show. It is a lot of fun to play the different characters.
Nancy KerriganI like to try all kinds of styles so it always challenges me and forces me to try to look different.
Nancy KerriganPart of being a champ is acting like a champ. You have to learn how to win and not run away when you lose. Everyone has bad stretches and real successes. Either way, you have to be careful not to lose your confidence or get to confident.
Nancy KerriganEven now, my husband Jerry, our son Matthew and I live only five minutes away from my parents home, and my brothers live about ten minutes away. It's been great having such a supportive family.
Nancy KerriganI think it's a lot harder for the pros to have a long career in ice dance and in pairs. It seems the singles have a little bit of a longer career.
Nancy KerriganPeople are really sick of seeing the winner not win and what the public thinks should happen.
Nancy Kerrigan