First-year student lights flame at New York’s Winter Games

02/01/2022 

Competitive figure skating lit a fire inside Amanda Demmerle when she was young.

Now, thanks to her perseverance in the sport, community service and effort in the classroom, the SUNY Cortland first-year student will light the flaming cauldron that marks the official start of the Empire State Winter Games (ESWG) Thursday, Feb. 3 in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Demmerle, from Camillus, N.Y., will be honored as the ESWG’s Athlete of the Year in recognition of her character off the ice. With approximately 2,000 athletes expected to compete in a four-day span, the games are considered the largest multi-sport amateur winter sporting event in North America.

The kick-off also takes place the same day as the opening ceremonies of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, halfway around the world.

“The feeling is surreal,” said Demmerle, a dual major in adolescence education: social studies and history who has competed regularly in Lake Placid at the ESWG during the past decade.

Demmerle, who has tested through the gold level in multiple figure skating categories, will compete in two events this year. She will look to add to an ESWG awards collection that includes first- and third-place honors from past years. Individual awards at the games are presented across several divisions for first through third place.

“With most (figure skating) competitions, it’s only figure skaters. You don’t get to interact with athletes from other sports,” she said. “When you go to the Empire State Winter Games, there’s all of these other sports and hundreds of people and this giant parade. You get to hear their stories because we’re all there together.”

It wasn’t Demmerle’s skating accolades but her story of dedication that resonated with a panel of judges in 2020. She has competed through asthma and several injuries in recent years that included ankle tendinitis and a labral tear in her hip.

She was selected as the athlete of the year for figure skating out of more than 500 entries two years ago. Each sport’s winning athlete then submitted a video introduction. An online voting contest selected Demmerle as the overall winner.

“I like to think the reason I won is my love and support for the community — not just the sport, but everything outside of it as well,” said Demmerle, who skates four days each week and spends just as much time teaching young skaters and working at an after-school program.

She is a member of the Cortland Figure Skating Club, which is made up of local skaters from across Cortland County and Central New York. Demmerle joined the group several years ago — long before she attended SUNY Cortland — because its home ice at the J.M. McDonald Sports Complex offers the ability to skate indoors in the summer. She said her teammates and coaches are like a second family to her.

Her mother, Jaime Hummell Demmerle ’91, also provided a strong connection to Cortland.

“I think part of it is I had such a great experience at Cortland,” said Jaime Demmerle, noting that she’d often point out houses from her college days after trips to figure skating practices. “It was one of those things where everything aligned.”

Many figure skating club teammates, family members, law enforcement agencies and local leaders, including SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum, joined Demmerle when the ESWG torch relay passed through Cortland Jan. 31 as part of a six-day, 700-mile journey.

“As a parent, you think of the quote: ‘Success might not be what I do in life but who I raise,’” Jaime Demmerle said. “I was just so proud of her because she works so hard on and off of the ice.”

Outside of training and competition, food and clothing drives are staples of the Cortland Figure Skating Club. The close-knit organization also offered Amanda Demmerle early experience as a volunteer teacher and coach through a “learn to skate” program.

“I’ve been able to see how young skaters learn,” the aspiring teacher said.

As a student at West Genesee High School, Demmerle was invited to join national honor societies for academics, dance and the Spanish language in addition to earning a Seal of Biliteracy. She applied to SUNY Cortland because of the university’s reputation in teacher education and was awarded a scholarship for her civic engagement.

“I applied to Cortland to become a social studies teacher and I knew when I applied that there was a lot out there that I wanted to get done,” she said, noting that she enjoys learning about history through travel and hopes to study abroad in Cork, Ireland in the future. 

But before that, she’ll travel to Lake Placid — a winter sports destination with a rich history of its own.

“Lake Placid is amazing, especially because of the connection to the Winter Olympics,” said Demmerle, referring to the Adirondack village’s hosting of the 1932 and 1980 games. “There’s just this magical feeling because you get to compete in the same place where all of these great moments happened.”

More Red Dragon connections to the Empire State Winter Games

In addition to Amanda Demmerle, ESWG competitors with close SUNY Cortland ties include Isabelle and Lincoln Woodward. Their mother, Melanie Woodward, is the university’s associate director of human resources and affirmation action officer.