THE OLYMPICS WINTER GAMES AT ALBERTVILLE : Nature Wants to Join in Fun : Weather: Heavy snow makes driving dangerous in Savoy region, but might prevent sled course from melting.

In his opening remarks before the 98th session of the International Olympic Committee, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain said Tuesday that the day might soon come when an Olympic Games is held in different regions of one country or perhaps even in different countries.

“This would help to lighten the burden of organizing events requiring very heavy infrastructures in difficult climatic and geological conditions,” he said.

For COJO, the French acronym for the organizing committee of the Winter Olympics that are scheduled to begin in 72 hours in the Savoy region, Tuesday was one of those days when it would have appreciated having its burden lightened.

After several days of unseasonably warm temperatures and bright sunshine, the region was visited by the first significant snowstorm since late December. Up to a foot of snow fell at the highest altitudes, severely testing the capabilities of crews assignedto clear the roads that connect 10 Olympic venues over a 640-square mile area of the French Alps.

COJO officials awarded themselves a passing grade, but drivers who reported treacherous conditions on some of the two-lane roads were less charitable.

Claude Regis, a hotel owner from the downhill skiing site of Val d’Isere, stood in the middle of the road and screamed obscenities after his station wagon skidded into the back of a snowplow near the small village of Sainte Foy.

“People who are supposed to clear the road are blocking the road,” he said.

Other accidents were reported near Les Saises, site of the cross-country skiing. COJO officials reported that road workers in that area went on strike before putting salt on the roads to provide traction for vehicles, but they later said there was no strike. Blame the winter, they said.

Considering it is the Winter Olympics that will begin with an opening ceremony at Albertville and two hockey games at Meribel on Saturday, some bad weather is to be expected. But COJO’s co-president, former skiing champion Jean-Claude Killy, said after two feet of snow fell on Dec. 23, creating avalanches on the slopes of several popular resorts, that he would be pleased if it did not snow again before the Feb. 23 closing ceremony.

On Tuesday, however, COJO officials in the media center at La Lechere were making the best of the situation.

“It’s not that bad,” COJO spokeswoman Marie-Claudie Blanc said. “We knew we were going to have bad weather. It could have been next week. That would have been worse.

“We’ve seen the forecast. The weather is going to be wonderful to greet people here.”

Asked if the forecast originated with meteorologists or optimists, she said: “It’s the optimists and the mountaineers.”’

As for the athletes, the only ones who had their training schedules interrupted by the storm were Alpine skiers at Val d’Isere, where the visibility at the top of the course was less than 25 yards. Only two skiers were allowed onto the course before it was closed as a safety precaution.

In contrast, lugers were pleased to see clouds cover the sun, which in recent days has been melting the track at La Plagne that they share with bobsledders.

Organizers tried placing sun screens over the track, but that would make the two sports impossible to televise. There were preliminary discussions with television executives about moving the events from morning to evening, but the subject apparently has been dropped.

Joseph Spieler, an Austrian expert on the construction of bobsled and luge tracks, said Tuesday that he still cannot believe this one was built with so much exposure to the sun.

“It’s like building a swimming pool in the shade,” he said.

Until the problems with the bobsled and luge track at La Plagne became apparent, the organizers at Lillehammer, Norway, were considering using it instead of taking on the expense of building one of their own for the 1994 Winter Games.

The proposed cooperation between France and Norway would have served as an example of the Olympic Games of the future that Samaranch described in his speech Tuesday to the IOC. He said that COJO inspired the idea by spreading the competitions over 10 cities in one region.

“The Albertville COJO will have served us well by opening up new possibilities,” he said. “In choosing the Savoy town and the whole Tarentaise valley behind it, the IOC knew what it was letting itself--and the organizers--in for.

“After entrusting the organization of the Games to major cities like Sarajevo and Calgary, it was time to try a return to the very heart of nature.”

Nature’s presence Tuesday was undeniable.