THE OLYMPICS / WINTER GAMES AT ALBERTVILLE : NOTES

When Ben Husaby of Eden Prairie, Wis., was chosen last fall to play a cross-country skier in a TV commercial for a candy bar, it was a perfect example of type-casting. Husaby is a cross-country skier. He will complete what he started Thursday when he races today in the men’s 15-kilometer freestyle leg of the classical-pursuit race.

Skiing is hard work, but making the commercial was no piece of cake, er, candy, either, he said.

The shooting took 3 1/2 days and 56 bites of candy bars.

He said he really does like the candy bars, but that 56 bites were too much of a good thing.

“At first they were telling me to spit them out but I said, ‘Why?’ ” Husaby said. “But about halfway through, I got a sugar rush and my stomach started to hurt.”

Had Greg Poirier, the U.S. ski jumping coach, thought ahead a little, he might have held off until Friday, Valentine’s Day. Instead, though, he rushed the season and proposed Monday, on the ski slopes at Courchevel, to girlfriend Shannon Regan. Ignoring his poor timing, she accepted.