Lake Placid Skating Club members, from left, Mandy Bennett, Almy Bartis, Lawson Ciferri, Annalyse Gerken and Estelle Walden smile at the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid during the 2023 FISU Winter World University Games men’s single skating program on Sunday, Jan. 15. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid Skating Club may not have access to local ice during the 2023 FISU Winter World University Games, but they’re not staying away from the rink.

LPSC board members and skaters volunteered at the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena for the games’ figure skating competitions, which started with the ice dance rhythm dance competition on Friday, Jan. 13 and culminated with an Exhibition Gala on Monday, Jan. 16.

Anne Bennett, who took the helm as the LPSC’s president this past August, was the volunteer coordinator for the skating club during the FISU games.

While skating club board members were involved with ice monitoring and announcing, working at the information desk and providing competition updates to skaters, among other duties, according to Bennett, many of the skating club’s younger members got to do “flower sweeping” in between figure skating competitors — that means the young skaters made a round around the rink to pick up any flowers or other items that might have been thrown onto the ice. Bennett said the experience was educational and inspiring for the young skaters.

Bennett — who competitively figure skated for years, earning the World Figure and Fancy Junior title in 2019, and has coordinated volunteers for the Lake Placid Figure Skating Championships last year all the way to the FISU games — said she’s used to interacting and watching Olympic skaters and international skating competitors.

Lake Placid Skating Club member Almy Bartis makes a loop around the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid in between performances during the 2023 FISU Winter World University Games men’s single skating program on Jan. 15. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

“Though there’s always a couple of people who don’t fail to surprise me,” she added.

But for the kids and adults in the skating club who don’t get to watch advanced skaters perform as frequently, she said, “they have always told me how much of a treat it is to watch these amazing people do all these amazing things they didn’t even know were possible.”

Bennett said flower sweeping gave kids in the club a chance to check out the skaters’ edge work, spins and body positioning up close, since the kids sat rinkside as skaters performed. Watching skaters in person is different from watching them on television, Bennett said — in person, the young skaters can closely observe and better pick up on advanced techniques.

Watching the advanced skaters is inspiring for the kids, too, who are usually skating with peers who have the same skill level as each other.

One of the youngsters saw a skater pull off an aerial — a cartwheel with no hands — on the ice during the International Skating Union Challenger Series competition in Lake Placid last year, and Bennett said the young skater wanted to give the aerial a shot. Their attempt didn’t go well, Bennett said, but she said the kids often feel a new sense of confidence in exploring new tricks on the ice after watching impressive performances during events like the FISU games.

Lake Placid Skating Club member Lawson Ciferri glides across the ice at the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid in between performances during the 2023 FISU Winter World University Games men’s single skating program on Sunday, Jan. 15. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

The skating club kids got to catch an up-close glimpse of some well-known skaters, too. Bennett said they saw U.S. Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen, who presented awards during the medals ceremony for the FISU men’s single skating program, and Sakamoto Kaori, of Japan, who won bronze in women’s figure skating during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

“For a quick second, they didn’t recognize her because of her haircut,” Bennett said, “but I had to let them know that, ‘oh this is Sakamoto Kaori,’ and they looked at me like, ‘no way!'”

Bennett said the Lake Placid Skating Club will be able to return to the ice the day after the FISU games end. The closing ceremony for the games is on Jan. 22.