People share their favorite stories as World Winter Games wrap up

KUNA, IDAHO: LEBANON AND GIBRALTAR

This week in Kuna, you might have heard Arabic, French and accented English, along with standard-fare Rocky Mountain English.

Families there hosted teams from Lebanon and Gibraltar during the Games.

The Hayes family took their guests to see a local dairy farm, the Idaho Botanical Garden in its night-glow glory and a mall.

Larry Hayes played host to Rabah Knio, a downhill skier who won two gold medals and a bronze.

"Rabah has Down syndrome, but he speaks French, English and Arabic. He'd translate for his teammates. I have enough trouble with English," Hayes quipped.

The athletes showed photos of their home to their hosts.

"I thought of Beirut as war-torn, but they said, 'No, there's just one area of the city that gets bombed. Where the Shiites are.' They just go on with their lives, go to school, go to work."

The athletes urged Hayes not to believe everything he sees on the news about their part of the world, about the "bad and the bombs."

"It's a beautiful place, and they want us to come visit," Hayes said.

QATAR IN THE FRIENDLY SKIES

Hamad Al-Behaih, 12, a speedskater from Qatar, had quite the morning Friday.

He won a silver medal earlier in the week. He won a second silver Friday. He raced again, and was waiting for the judges to finalize the results.

There was just one problem - a plane was waiting to take him and his teammates on their 24-hour trip back to Qatar, a country on the Arabian Peninsula. He missed two medal ceremonies.

Team Qatar rushed to the Boise Airport without knowing that Al-Behaih had won his third silver medal of the Games.

Security at Idaho IceWorld got wind of the situation and decided that an airplane shouldn't stand in the way of a young skater's reward. They alerted the Boise police, who alerted airport security. Police officers put Al-Behaih's medals in a Ziploc bag, and sped to the airport.

In the meantime, as the Qatar athletes got to their gate, airport staffers enlisted the help of Airport Director Richard McConnell.

McConnell donned a trademark blue and white Special Olympics scarf. A group at the airport, including federal air marshals, hurried the medals through security and caught up with the team from Qatar.

McConnell and the others enlisted nearby passengers to cheer, and McConnell slipped two silver medals around Al-Behaih's neck.

MONAGASQUES ON BLUE TURF

Kip Krumwiede, a professor at Boise State, tried to bone up on a little French as soon as he heard that he and his family would be hosting a group from Monaco during the Games.

"My wife and I moved downstairs into our kids' rooms and gave the athletes the bedrooms upstairs. It was fun to bunk with our kids," Krumwiede said.

In return for the hospitality, the Krumwiedes got a geography lesson about Monaco - a place many Americans associate with Grace Kelly and little else.

After Vatican City, Monaco is the world's second-smallest country, home to 38,000 people who live in an area of less than one square mile.

Krumwiede took his guests to see Boise State's famous blue turf, which they loved.

"The coach was trying to explain to the athletes that it was plastic grass, not real grass," he said. "Finally, one of the athletes said, 'Ah, yes. Seen-tet-tic.' "

TEAM SUSAN TRIUMPHS

Local readers might remember the McCollum/Kuffel clan from Illinois. Each member of the family wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with a photograph of figure skater Susan McCollum, who celebrated her 35th birthday this week.

The sweatshirts may have been lucky charms.

Dale McCollum, father of the athlete, wore his Thursday morning - the day after Susan McCollum won the bronze medal, skating to "Memories" in honor of her mom, who died from cancer.

McCollum's shirt had an addition, a swirling autograph on the shoulder from Olympic skater Scott Hamilton.

Along with the autograph and the medal, the McCollum/Kuffels also were taking about five hours of Special Olympics footage home with them, shot by Dale.

"I'll edit it down, but our friends in Illinois better be ready to watch some movies," McCollum said.

MONACO LOVES THE PRESIDENT

Boise businesswoman Peggy Gibson was so nervous to greet her athlete/guests from Monaco that she was sick to her stomach, anticipating their arrival.

Everything turned out fine - though her queasy stomach morphed into a headache from all the conversing in broken English and listening so intently.

"We were trying to be hospitable, but it was like they didn't want to put us out," Gibson said. "Would we do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat."

Gibson took the athletes to the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise.

"They wanted to know why Boise had the memorial. We told them that Boise wanted to say that it supports human rights," she said.

The athletes spent a long time at the memorial, Gibson said.

"They were reading all the quotes on the wall back to one another, translating them into French," she said.

The visit wasn't all somber. There was the Monagasques' search for strong espresso, and one particularly important trip to the mall.

Mireille Calmes, head of the Monaco delegation, one of the guests staying with the Gibsons, got a call from a friend in Europe one morning.

Calmes told Gibson, "My friend wants me to bring her an Obama T-shirt to use at night. She wants to sleep with Obama."

Gibson called a store at the mall. Luckily, the store had a few shirts left in stock with the president's likeness.

Anna Webb: 377-6431