David Chodounsky has paid a fitting tribute to two junior members of the US 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 US ski team is mourning for them," Chodounsky said. "We're just skiing for them today. They were great guys."
All US athletes at the race joined in the mourning of development team members Ronnie Berlack, 20, and Bryce Astle, 19, who died on Monday near the Rettenbach glacier in the mountains over Soelden, the US 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. "US 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-mast. 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 3056-metre Gaislachkogel when they left the prepared slope and apparently set off the avalanche. The other four skied out of the slide and escaped unhurt.
The deaths left the US ski team "in shock," US Alpine director Patrick Riml said. Men's head coach Sascha Rearick left the World Cup group in Croatia to head back to Austria as soon as he heard the news on Monday.
"We've always been a tight family, but this is going to make us even tighter and stronger," Rearick told the AP in a telephone interview from Soelden. "Stronger mentally and stronger in many ways."
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