OLYMPIC NOTES

A 516-pound sumo wrestler and a 95-pound figure skater, Japanese heroes both, will form the centerpiece of an Olympic opening ceremony scripted to draw East and West together--from traditional Asian bonfires to Beethoven.

Beyond that, though, mum’s pretty much the word.

Details of the opening ceremony have been kept secret--so secret that two Japanese newspapers’ Olympic credentials were pulled temporarily when they published details of the festivities after an earlier rehearsal. Reporters invited to a dress rehearsal had to promise they would keep quiet.

The message of this year’s ceremony, says Francois Carrard, director general of the IOC, “is very simple: It’s a message of respect of one’s self and the rules, of tolerance and understanding.”

Festivities at the Minami Nagano Sports Park will include the 3,000 competing athletes, 50,000 spectators and a television audience expected to number in the hundreds of millions.

Akebono, a grand champion sumo wrestler born in Hawaii, will join other contenders of Japan’s national sport to perform a ring-entering ceremony known as dohyo-iri.

After the Olympic flag is raised, Japanese figure skater Midori Ito, who won a silver medal in Albertville in 1992 and is not competing this year, will light the Olympic caldron.

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An emotional Shimer, although cleared by the international bobsled federation of a drug test that showed an abnormal ratio between his testosterone and epitestosterone levels in November, found it difficult to complete a prepared statement in which he discussed his reactions to the two-month process during a news conference for the U.S. bobsled team Wednesday.

Shimer, a four-time Olympian and driver of U.S. I, said he has never taken a banned substance but that “rumors and media speculation have been damaging to me, my family and teammates. I know it’s time to toughen up, but the hurt and embarrassment will not be easy to repair. I like being a role model, and hope people can look at me without seeing a black cloud. I do care what people think, so any controversy can be a distraction. Hopefully, I can put it behind me.”

Meanwhile, Mike Dionne, a push-athlete on U.S. III, is waiting for an international arbitration panel to hear his appeal of a three-month suspension by the federation for testing positive for ephedrine. Driver Todd Hayes’ four-man team could be sidelined if Dionne is ineligible to compete.