Skiers join in mourning of teammates killed in avalanche

(AP) — David Chodounsky paid a fitting tribute to the two junior members of the U.S. ski team who were killed in an avalanche in Austria.
Competing in the opening leg of a World Cup slalom race in Croatia on Tuesday, the American skied one of the best runs of his life and ended up with the third-fastest time.
When he crossed the finish line, he pointed at his helmet, which carried a piece of tape saying “Remember BA + RB.”
“The entire U.S. ski team is mourning for them,” Chodounsky said. “We’re just skiing for them today. They were great guys.”
All U.S. ski team athletes at the race joined in the mourning of development team members Ronnie Berlack, 20, and Bryce Astle, 19, who died Monday near the Rettenbach glacier in the mountains over Soelden, the U.S. ski team’s European training base since 2011.
“It’s terrible,” said Chodounsky, who later straddled a gate and failed to finish his second run. “U.S. skiing is a tight family, there is not many of us. They were great skiers, young but they were coming up. There is no doubt in my mind that one day they had made the World Cup. The entire team is skiing for them.”
The Americans wore black armbands during the race, while the American flag in the finish area was flying at half-staff. A 30-second moment of silence was held before the race started.
Berlack, from Franconia, New Hampshire, and Astle, from Sandy, Utah, were part of a group of six skiers who were descending from the 3,056-meter Gaislachkogel when they left the prepared slope and apparently set off the avalanche. The other four skied out of the slide and escaped unhurt.
“What happened yesterday was for sure a bummer,” Olympic giant slalom champion Ted Ligety told The Associated Press. “We are all racers. But to know you’ve lost a couple of your teammates is super saddening, for sure.”
Will Brandenburg was the fastest starter in the first run before skiing out. He had Berlack and Astle on his mind.
“Bryce always had a way of going for it and that is something I love because I see it in my skiing, too,” Brandenburg told the AP. “I was just going to go for it, that’s all I wanted to do, I wanted to fight and that’s what I did.”
The 28-year-old Brandenburg was like a mentor for the two juniors and helped them settle at their European training base.
“Those two kids were amazing people,” he said. “I mean, great skiers but truly amazing people. And I got a great opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with them and help them throughout the summer with travel and training.”