In the Town of Albertville, They <i> Parlez </i> Alabamian, Ya’ll

With the start of the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, the 12,000 citizens of Albertville, Ala., are getting their 15 minutes of fame.

CNN and other national media have done stories on the northern Alabama town, the angle being how different it is from the site of the 16th Winter Games in the French Alps.

As John Powers of the Boston Globe points out, however, holding a Winter Olympics in Albertville, Ala., wouldn’t be that difficult.

Wrote Powers: “The city rests atop Sand Mountain, not far from Boaz, and is only 30 miles from the ski slopes--closer than Val d’Isere (the men’s Alpine skiing venue) is to Albertville, France. And a lakeside room at the Holiday Inn runs you only $47 a night.”

Add Albertville: According to Rand McNally, there’s also an Albertville, Minn., an Albertville, Canada, and an Albertville, Zaire.

Trivia time: What team did the United States beat to win the “miracle on ice” hockey gold medal in 1980?

Let the carping begin! Noting that Tim McCarver, who is co-hosting CBS’s Winter Olympics coverage with Paula Zahn, began the network’s preview show Thursday with “It’s hard to believe the opening is only hours away,” Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Evening Sun wrote: “It’s hard to believe that’s all he could come up with after six months’ reflection. Strike one!”

Send money: Gil LeBreton of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reported the following souvenir prices (in U.S. dollars) from Albertville: Olympic corkscrew and can opener, $6.80; inflatable Olympic mascot (a figure known as “Magique”), $7.60; Olympic umbrella, $18; Olympic sweat shirt, $75; Olympic sweater, $86.

Fashion update: Expected to be a collector’s item from the Winter Games: a ski jacket being worn by athletes and officials from the Commonwealth of Independent States. Although the Soviet Union no longer exists, the Soviet initials (CCCP) and symbol (the hammer and sickle) are on the jacket. According to team officials, CIS athletes should be wearing clothes bearing only the Olympic rings when the Games begin today.

Gone and forgotten: Dog-sled racing had its day at the 1932 Winter Games in Lake Placid as a demonstration sport. Emile St. Goddard of Canada and his seven dogs won an easy victory over seven rival sleds in the sport’s only Olympic appearance.

Other sports that didn’t make it past brief trial runs at the Winter Games include bandy (a form of hockey), winter pentathlon (a grueling program of cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, pistol shooting, fencing and horseback riding) and something called military patrol (a forerunner of the current Olympic biathlon).

Did you know? Figure skating first appeared as an Olympic sport in the Summer Games of 1908 and 1920 before moving to the winter when the first Winter Games were held in 1924.

Sticking with it: Billy and Roger Christian, stars of the U.S. hockey team that upset the Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal at the 1960 Olympics, own the Christian Brothers stick company in Warroad, Minn. Said Billy: “We built houses. We thought making hockey sticks was kind of natural for us.”

Trivia answer: Finland.

Quotebook: French cross-country skier Marie-Pierre Guilbaud, on the French team’s attitude toward the Olympic gender verification tests: “We have no doubt we’re women.”