Kincaid Elementary School students had drawn dozens of smiling mummies and hung them in the halls. They had posted greetings in Arabic -- "Good Luck to the Egyptian team" -- and memorized facts about Egypt. Specially designed T-shirts with a pyramid and Mount McKinley had been printed for their guests.

Mostafa Karim laughs with Egyptian teammates during an assembly in their honor at Kincaid Elementary. (Photo by Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News)

So, by the time the Egyptian delegation to the 2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games -- 20 athletes and eight coaches -- arrived Friday morning, the whole school was ready.

The Egyptians listened to 505 Kincaid students sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Then came the duet.

With music teacher Grant Clark conducting, the students began singing an English translation of the Egyptian national anthem. "My homeland, my homeland, my hallowed land. ..."

Smiles played across the Egyptian coaches as the students continued in strong voices: "Mother of the great ancient land ..."

The athletes began to grin. "Gracious is thy Nile to humanity."

In moments, the visitors began to sing along -- in Arabic.

The voices in both languages rose, obscuring the words but joining into a melody that threatened to drown out the solemn instrumentals. Cheering and clapping filled the room.

After the applause died down, the head of the Egyptian delegation, Dr. Ashraf Marie, spoke from his wheelchair.

"I'd like to thank you so much -- it's good to be at Kincaid School with these beautiful and wonderful students," he said. "We are here today to talk to you about Egypt, a nice place. We would like to see you there someday."

Students in the school's 21 classes had spent two months incorporating Egypt into their social studies, art and music, said special education teacher Debra Smith, who coordinated the Kincaid sponsorship and designed the T-shirt. "They now know (the Egyptian anthem) better than our national anthem," she said.

And so went the second day of the visit to Anchorage by a team of desert-based athletes from the other side of the world.

The Egyptian snowshoe and floor hockey delegates are among 2,500 special Olympians from more than 80 countries, and many spent Friday visiting local schools that had sponsored them. The games commence on Sunday.

The members of the Egyptian Special Olympic snowshoe squad may train on sand -- in the shadows of the Giza pyramids -- but they can slog through drifts and up trails as well as most northerners. In the 1997 Games in Toronto, they took second place.

The Egyptian athletes woke up Friday at the Holiday Inn pumped with enthusiasm, said their local representative Samy Zeid, an Anchorage accountant who originally came from Egypt.

"They are so excited," he said. "They were out this morning running in the snow."

To get used to cold, the Egyptians have been training inside Cairo ice arenas. But their secret weapon, said head coach Abdel Khaleh Bahaa El Dien, is plain hot sand.

"We went beside the pyramids, and we have trained on sand," he said. "It practiced all the muscles. It's no difference between the sand and the snow. About same, the stride."

Doug O'Harra can be reached at 907-257-4334 and do'harra@adn.com.