ELLENTON — The stands were jam-packed inside the ice rink Wednesday afternoon. Onlookers stood on their tiptoes to see over the people in front of them and catch a glimpse at Manatee County’s Olympians.

Outside of the ice rink, in the concession stand area of the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex, throngs of fans — small children, senior citizens and every age in between — were perched on chairs so they could catch a view of the best pairs figure skating teams in the country — U.S. champions Caydee Denney, of Wesley Chapel, and Jeremy Barrett, of Venice, and runners-up Mark Ladwig, of Parrish, and Amanda Evora, of Bradenton — grace the ice for practice.

Ellenton Ice officials estimated the crowd at about 700 strong.

“Oh, my goodness!” Evora said. “When they said people were coming, I didn’t know they meant (this many) people were coming. That was the most packed I’ve ever seen that rink at once.”

Enthusiasm has been growing in Manatee since the pairs clinched a spot in next month’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, thanks to their 1-2 finish at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships earlier this month.

Now people are coming in droves to watch the skaters practice, and the excitement could have a ripple effect for the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex.

“Success will breed success,” said Lyndon Johnston, who along with John Peterson coaches the skaters. “If you have a successful business or successful athletes, more will come to see what we have to offer. We are capable of it. This is one of the nicest facilities I’ve ever trained in. I certainly believe there were people in the audience that have grandkids that will get them to skate.”

Some of those future elite skaters might already train in Ellenton. And those skaters with Olympic dreams can now say they are being taught by Olympians.

As Tom Lindemuth, general manager of the complex, left the facility Tuesday, he saw Ladwig and Evora hard at work teaching the basic skills class to children.

“The whole ice was covered with kids,” Lindemuth said. “And I look down there, and there were Mark and Amanda. There’s the Olympic representatives down there teaching beginning skating. Where are you going to get that type of teaching on that level?”

But the rink, which has been around for 11 years and borders Interstate 75 and the popular Prime Outlets-Ellenton, caters to more than figure skating.

There’s indoor soccer, indoor paintball, an arcade, a full-service restaurant (Suds Sports Grill) and a fitness center. The complex is also home of the 2008 national champion Gulf Coast Flames, a youth hockey travel team, and the undefeated Manatee County Hockey Club, a high school team.

But all anyone wanted to talk about Wednesday was Manatee’s Olympic skaters.

“It’s inspiring to watch on TV ... seeing someone I know that close to a dream that I share with them,” said Brendan Fagan, 16. “It really, really pushes me, because Caydee is 16, too, so I see that she’s the same age. It’s not something you have to be in your 20s to do. The Olympics are so amazing, and I just hope someday that I will be there.”

Fagan, along with everyone else at the complex and many sports fans around Manatee, will be watching the pairs competition Feb. 14-15.

That wasn’t lost on the skaters.

“This is a whirlwind for us right now,” Denney said. “We knew with all of our hard work that we do every day, this could happen. People might think it’s a little bit unknown to hear that we come from Florida, but I think we have a great skating program here, and skaters can come from anywhere as long as they are dedicated to hard work.”