AND IT ALWAYS GROWLS WHEN IT GETS NEAR THE MOTHRA SLED

As usual, many of the more than 30 bobsled teams competing in the Olympics sport some distinctive paint jobs. None is more distinctive than that of the Virgin Islands.

The four-man sled is painted a brilliant green and black, and looks like a giant lizard, eerie eyes and all on the front.

And say this for the crew. They know where to get the job done.

“We were going to get it painted in Park City [Utah],” driver Zachary Zoller said. “Thank God we didn’t go there. That’s where that Roselli sled burned down. We brought it up to Calgary and got a local artist, Gary Taylor, and he didn’t hardly charge us anything.”

U.S. bobsledder Bruce Roselli lost his sled in a Park City paint shop two days before Christmas. It caught fire while a fresh coat was being put on.

Zoller said the sled is supposed to be an iguana.

“But everybody in Japan thinks it’s Godzilla,” he said. “It’s a mean-looking iguana, I guess.”

THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER WHEN YOU LEAVE THE COUNTRY

Snowboard champion Ross Rebagliati returned to Canada, but first he made a stop on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

Rebagliati tested positive for marijuana, but was not stripped of his medal. He said the positive test was the result of second-hand smoke.

Leno asked how much marijuana Rebagliati had in his system at the time of the test.

“To put it in perspective, it was like a billionth of a gram,” Rebagliati said.

Leno asked musician Kevin Eubanks how much a billionth of a gram cost, and Eubanks said, “Not much, Jay.”

After Rebagliati explained how he inhaled the smoke, Leno said, “So unlike [President] Clinton, you inhaled, but didn’t smoke. He smoked, but not inhaled.”

IN LIEU OF A PAYCHECK, PLEASE ACCEPT THESE LOVELY FLOWERS

When the German women swept the medals in the combined event at Alpine skiing, gold medalist Katja Seizinger and silver medalist Martina Ertl jumped from the victory stand and ran toward the crowd to throw their bouquets of flowers to the spectators.

Bronze medalist Hilde Gerg headed up the hill to where hundreds of gray-clad Olympic volunteers had gathered to watch the flower ceremony.

The volunteers had worked through horrible weather in the two weeks of Alpine skiing in Hakuba, and Gerg wanted to acknowledge their efforts. She threw her bouquet to them.

“Martina and Katja were going to the spectators, so I said, ‘OK, I’ll go to the staff,’ ” Gerg said. “They’ve done a lot of work the last two weeks, and it was not too easy for them.

“I think it was a good moment to say thank you.”