Villagers Get a Nice Surprise : Pan Am Games: Expecting the worst, the competitors discover that accommodations in the athletes’ complex aren’t so bad, after all.

Veronica Ribot-Canales, an Argentine diver who attended the University of Miami, was talking about the athletes’ village for the 11th Pan American Games, which open here Friday. She said that few athletes had any gripes about the accommodations. But then she pointed out that most American athletes had not yet arrived.

“You know the Americans,” she said, and with her finger she pushed her nose into the air. “Stuck up.”

Americans as chronic complainers have become a tradition at the Pan American Games. Like a flock of annoying birds, U.S. athletes can be counted on to land in a town and begin harping.

That’s why even U.S. officials are astonished by the exemplary behavior of American athletes so far. Although less than half the U.S. delegation has assembled, the indications are that the Americans are satisfied, if not happy, to be here.

“It’s a lot nicer than what I expected; it’s been a pleasant surprise,” said diver Kent Ferguson of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Ferguson’s comments Wednesday were echoed by dozens of athletes from several countries. Most had only good things to say about the athletes’ village, located in the eastern part of the city overlooking the Bay of Havana.

As American athletes filtered into the village, it became clear that the U.S. Olympic Committee’s briefing a few days ago in Tampa, Fla., had the desired effect: Prepare them for the worst so that they will be grateful for whatever they did get.

The USOC has sent delegations here several times to prepare the U.S. team for the Games. But one item was overlooked by the scouting parties--the absence of toilet seats in the bathrooms at the village. Cuban authorities are aware of the situation and say no seats will be forthcoming. The case of the missing toilet seats has become a good-natured joke here, being referred to as the Potty Controversy.

The Canadian delegation arrived prepared, however, and is expected to begin installing 100 toilet seats it brought along.

Other than that, the athletes seem comfortable in their newly built compound, with its low-slung white plaster buildings and airy rooms.

About 7,200 athletes and officials are being housed in groups of six, in three-bedroom apartments complete with a kitchen and sitting room. The rooms are not air-conditioned--and this is the height of Cuba’s summer--but there is a ceiling fan in each room that athletes say is adequate.

The village has a discotheque, a video games room, a barbershop and nonstop music blaring from loudspeakers everywhere. Tuesday night, athletes gathered on a humid evening to listen to a live salsa band.

“We all complain, especially when you compare this to what we have at home,” said Nigel Traverso, a field hockey player from Queens, N.Y. Traverso, who was raised in Trinidad, said his background gives him a different perspective on the conditions here.

Ribot-Canales agreed: “This is nothing. I’ve been to the South American Games. They are hilarious.”

Indeed, Havana’s athletes’ village scores well when compared to villages at previous Pan Am Games. The low-water mark appears to have been the 1983 Games at Caracas, Venezuela. The athletes’ village there was not completed by the opening ceremony. Athletes were assigned rooms and given keys. The problem was that the rooms had no doors.

The transformation of this village has been just short of miraculous. As was the case at most venues built for the Games, construction teams worked around the clock to complete construction.

The U.S. women’s field hockey team was here in late June for a series of matches against the Cubans. What they saw then made them skeptical.

“They showed us the village, and we all said, ‘No way it is going to be finished,’ ” field hockey player Antoinette Lucas said.

It was finished largely with the labor of 4,500 workers who were told that the best workers among them would be allowed to live in the apartments after the Games. In a country with a critical housing shortage, this promise was incentive enough to accelerate the normal construction pace.

However, the pace slowed a few months ago when workers discovered that some of the 1,473 apartments were destined to become part of a tourist hotel.

The issue of housing allocation is still unresolved, but the village is completed. Even with the generally excellent facilities at the village, most countries brought with them their own emergency provisions.

According to Evie Dennis, U.S. chief of mission, the delegation brought bottled water, toilet paper and a liquid nutritional supplement. The Canadians brought drinking water, toilet paper, shampoo, deodorant, chocolate bars and, of course, the 100 toilet seats.

Every effort has been made to make the athletes comfortable, both by Cuban organizers and the individual countries. Still, some grousing is expected from athletes who are accustomed to a degree of pampering.

“I’m sure you expected to hear some complaints,” field hockey player Lucas said. “I am aware that we are very spoiled.”

But not as much as some. Athletes from other, usually less popular sports, point to track and field and basketball as the most vigorous complainers.

“They are a lot more spoiled than we are,” said Manzar Iqbal, a field hockey player from Greenwich, Conn. “They live on a different level. They go to Europe and compete. We go to places like this.”