What's the Olympic capital of Alaska?

The news that Kerry Weiland of Palmer will win an Olympic medal Thursday when the United States meets Canada in the gold-medal hockey game raises an interesting question.

What Alaska city boasts the most Olympic medal winners?

There are three possible answers: Juneau, Anchorage or a five-way tie among Juneau, Palmer, Girdwood, Eagle River and Anchorage.

Confused? Join the club.

Alaska boasts 10 medal winners who were either raised in Alaska, starred in high school in Alaska or lived in Alaska while training for the Olympics. An 11th -- basketball player Andrea Lloyd Curry -- spent four years in Southeast Alaska, at least some of it while in junior high. Various sources say she played high school ball for both Juneau and Sitka, although she graduated from high school in Idaho.

If you count Lloyd Curry as a medal winner from Juneau, that gives the Capital City three medal winners and makes it the capital of Alaska medal winners.

If you don't, then five cities each boast two medal winners -- unless you count the entire Anchorage Bowl as Anchorage, in which case the state's largest city has six medal winners. But that's not going to go over well with Girdwood -- which claims Rosey Fletcher and Tommy Moe -- or Eagle River -- which claims Corey Cogdell and Pam Dryer.

Then there's the Tommy Moe tug-of-war. Is he the pride of Palmer or the glory of Girdwood? Both towns claimed him in 1994 when he skied to a pair of medals in Lillehammer, so we've decided to borrow a bit of Solomon's wisdom to settle the debate. We're splitting the medals in half and giving one to Palmer and one to Girdwood.

That is, of course, unless you insist that Girdwood is part of Anchorage. Then Anchorage gets to claim Moe, and that's just wrong.

But hey, you be the judge. Here's the list of Alaska's 11 medal winners and the towns that claim them:

1984 Summer Olympics -- Kris Thorsness, gold medal, rowing (Anchorage)

1988 Summer Olympics -- Andrea Lloyd Curry, gold medal, basketball (Juneau, Sitka)

1992 Winter Olympics -- Hilary Lindh, silver medal, downhill (Juneau)

1994 Winter Olympics -- Tommy Moe, gold medal in downhill, silver medal in super-G (Palmer, Girdwood)

1996 Summer Olympics -- Michele Granger, gold medal, softball (Anchorage)

2004 Summer Olympics -- Matt Emmons, gold medal, riflery (Fairbanks)

2004 Summer Olympics -- Carlos Boozer, bronze medal, basketball (Juneau)

2006 Winter Olympics -- Rosey Fletcher, bronze medal, snowboarding (Girdwood)

2006 Winter Olympics -- Pam Dreyer, bronze medal, hockey (Eagle River)

2008 Summer Olympics -- Carlos Boozer, gold medal, basketball (Juneau)

2008 Summer Olympics -- Matt Emmons, gold medal, riflery (Fairbanks)

2008 Summer Olympics -- Corey Cogdell, bronze medal, trapshooting (Eagle River)

2010 Winter Olympics -- Kerry Weiland, gold or silver medal, hockey (Palmer)

(Wondering why former Lathrop track star Passion Richardson, a member of the 2000 bronze-medal winning 400 relay team, isn't on the list? Because one of her teammates was Marion Jones, whose drug use prompted the IOC to take away medals from everyone on the team. The teammates are protesting, but late last year the IOC ruled against them. The case is supposed to be revisited this year. So hang in there, Fairbanks; maybe you can have two medal winners too.)

Alaskans at the Olympics

(all times AST)

Today

Men's cross-country, relay, 10:15 a.m. (James Southam, pending coaches' decision)

Thursday

Women's cross country, relay, 10 a.m (Kikkan Randall, Holly Brooks, pending coaches' decision)

Women's hockey, gold-medal game, 2:30 p.m. (Kerry Weiland)

Friday

Men's biathlon, relay, 10:30 a.m. (Jay Hakkinen, Jeremy Teela)

Saturday

Women's cross country, 30-K classic, 10:45 a.m. (Holly Brooks, Kikkan Randall, pending coaches' decision)

Sunday

Men's cross country, 50-K classic, 8:30 a.m. (Southam, pending coaches' decision)

Closing ceremonies, 5 p.m.

Vancouver Olympics 411

The blades on figure skates are 0.15 inches thick, or about the diameter of a pencil eraser.

Dispatch Alaska

Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, Girdwood snowboarder, on why more Alaska Natives aren't Winter Olympians:

"You probably won't become a world-class 100-meter runner if there's no track in your community. For my people, watching the Olympics on TV doesn't mean much if you have no one representing you. We are part of the U.S. but a very different part of the U.S.''

-- Miami Herald

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Compiled by Anchorage Daily News sports editor Beth Bragg. Daily News wire services contributed to this report.