THE OLYMPICS / WINTER GAMES AT ALBERTVILLE : DATELINE: ALBERTVILLE

OK, the Winter Games are half over, and so far so good. Especially if you’re Austrian, or one of the surprising French. Or a Canadian.

But although lots has happened, not much is happening. These Games still are searching for an identity, at least from a United States standpoint.

In 1980, there were speedskater Eric Heiden’s five gold medals and the hockey team’s “Miracle on Ice.” In ’84 there were skiers Bill Johnson living up to his gold-medal boast and the Mahre brothers winning gold and silver on the final day. And four years ago, the Calgary Games were speedskater Dan Jansen’s tragedy. A leading contender, he learned he had lost his sister to leukemia the morning of his first race, elected to compete anyway, then fell, not once but twice, in his best events.

This time around? Well, the medals are being won pretty much where they were anticipated--Hilary Lindh surprised with a silver medal in the women’s downhill--the hockey team seems to have something going for it, and there have been some disappointments. Jansen just missed a medal in his specialty Saturday, and figure skater Christopher Bowman couldn’t climb out of the hole he dug for himself the other night.

But so far, there is no peg, as they say in the newspaper business, no standout event, happy or tragic, that will stamp these Games forever.

Still, there’s a week to go and lots can happen in a week. And if these Games are like most, something will.

Whatever that turns out to be, though, these Winter Games are like most Winter Games--and unlike most other major sporting events--in one respect. Except for those in the glamour sports--Alpine skiing, figure skating and hockey--many of the athletes are performing before large crowds for one of the few times in their careers. For some, it is the first--and maybe will be the only--time. Athletes who have spent their careers in anonymity are suddenly on TV. Sportswriters are suddenly interested in their stories.

For some, it can be overwhelming.

Said biathlete Josh Thompson: “A lot of people have never seen a crowd this big in a biathlon race because you’re used to beating through the weeds alone. Just the physical act of getting from over there, through warmup, and rifle control and ski marking and then to the start is not like a lot of people expect. It boggles them a little bit.”

Even athletes who have been through it before are sometimes thrown by the sudden attention, perhaps because it has been four years since there has been any.

And sometimes, that makes for strained relations between athletes and press people. But it’s all part of the Winter Games and has been for a long time. And confrontation isn’t exactly the norm.

Just the other night, in fact, Times writer Thomas Bonk heard a knock on the door of his room in La Plagne, one of the more remote outposts of these Games and notorious for its lack of telephones. It was Herschel Walker, that Heisman Trophy winning bobsledder, wondering if he could use Bonk’s cellular.