WINTER OLYMPICS / NOTEBOOK

With appropriate fanfare and popping flashbulbs, Norway’s King Harald and Queen Sonja appeared at the official opening of the Main Press Center here.

“The Main Press Center is perhaps the heart of the Games,” said Gerhard Heiberg, president of the LOOC. “We do not pump out blood into the body, but we pump out information to the world.”

The ceremony was followed by a buffet of Norwegian delicacies, including cured moose or elk and filet of smoked reindeer marinated in port wine.

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The U.S. hockey team was scheduled to arrive today and practice tonight at Hakon Hall, site of its tournament opener Sunday against France. Indications are that Coach Tim Taylor will choose Mike Dunham to start in goal despite Dunham’s struggles in the past month.

Dunham made 23 saves in a 2-2 tie against Sweden in Goteborg, Sweden, on Wednesday, the final exhibition for the United States. David Roberts and Jeff Lazaro scored for the Americans.

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Is this any way to promote your city as a host for the 2002 Olympics, or was something lost in the translation?

A release on the Olympic computer system quoted Walter Seiber, vice president of the group pushing Quebec City’s bid for the Winter Olympics, as saying Quebec is “a strange town.”

He added, “Quebec lies on the same parallel as Paris, in the same time zone as New York and has a climate similar to that in Lillehammer.”

In announcing a bid by Sion, Switzerland, for the Games in 2002, gold-medal winning skier Pirmin Zurbriggen left nothing to interpretation.

“I would like to see the Olympic Winter Games in Switzerland again,” he said.

The country last had the Games in 1948, at St. Moritz.