Olympic Women Skaters Make This 'Whale Of a Dad' Wail

As my daughter enters her teen years, I admit my approach to her and humor changes.

A few years ago she got me a refrigerator magnet that she made in school, stating "One Whale of a Dad" written on a wooden whale cutout.

"Awww," I probably said then.

But just the other day, I said to her: "Whale of a Dad, huh? You callin' me fat?" My wife, daughter, and I laughed.

We also are getting further apart on the sporting realm, but for a week, I got her interested in ice skating. Women's ice skating.

While watching the Olympics on TV last night, I awaited the women's skating finals on Thursday night.

"The women's skating program will be shown, without interruption, in about an hour," announcer Bob Costas said at about 10 p.m.

Getting up at 6 a.m. each day catches up with me and I went to bed and hit record on the DVR.

I woke up at 6 a.m. Friday, and for the second day in a row, in the snowy east, my daughter's school was closed. I stayed in bed until about 6:40 a.m., then got up.

She slept in while I made a cup of coffee and watched the women's final on DVR.

Wow, what a final!

From Kim Yu-Na's record-breaking performance, danced to Concerto in F by George Gershwin, to Canadian Joannie Rochette's courageous bronze medal performance, it was one inspiring night.

For different reasons, tears came to my eyes after each performance.

Yu-Na's speed leading into triple turned jumps and then her tears for holding onto her first-place standing. They were tears of relief and joy, a whole nation of South Korea holding onto her every jump and movement.

Then Mao Asada of Japan skated.

Even though she hit her two triple axels early in the long program, a few critical minor mistakes assured that she would not take gold. She took silver with another near-perfect skate.

Rochette low fived her manager just prior to her skate, and you knew she was ready.

Rochette, seemingly the tallest of the finalists, did not disappoint, performing all required jumps behind the pro-Canada crowd in Vancouver, British Colombia.

Following the skate, Rochette raised her arms and eyes to the skies, likely signaling her mom, who died of a massive heart attack just four days prior to the skate.

"Even though I was trying to be focused, the emotions got the better of me. I was proud that I could control them, because I didn't know how I could skate -- my legs were shaking. But I'm glad I did it," Rochette said in an Olympic Fanhouse story on AOL.

I replayed the three medal-winning performances to my daughter after she woke up.

She liked Mao Asada the best. The dark music and knowledge that she needed perfection to win, reminded me of "Madame Butterfly."

Put those covers on the blades when you're done, girlfriend.

The second time watching, I did not cry. Well, maybe a little.

"What do you know about skating to write a story, Dad?" she asked.

I could have told her about watching Germany's Katarina Witt, France's Surya Bonale's lack of grace but raw power that enabled her to do backflips on the ice, and America's Kristi Yamaguchi's Gold Medal performance and more.

Unless they were named Hayley Williams (lead singer of the band Paramore), she wouldn't know who I was talking about.