Beaver Creek: Slalom a family affair for Cochran, Kelley and Brown

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado — It shouldn’t come as a surprise that U.S. Ski Teamer Roger Brown quoted his grandfather in the finish corral after failing to complete the first run of Sunday’s World Cup slalom on the tough Birds of Prey course.

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado — It shouldn’t come as a surprise that U.S. Ski Teamer Roger Brown quoted his grandfather in the finish corral after failing to complete the first run of Sunday’s World Cup slalom on the tough Birds of Prey course.
    After all, Brown certainly had family on his mind Sunday — at least his extended family. Brown was one of three racers in the field related by blood and a storied tradition of ski racing success. Brown, the son of Marilyn Cochran — the first U.S. skier ever to win a World Cup crown — was joined in the race by cousins Jimmy Cochran and Tim Kelley.
    Jimmy Cochran, a member of the A team who scored points in three of the four races this week, finished a disappointing but still-in-the-points 22nd Sunday, and Kelley failed to finish the race in his World Cup debut.
    “This is just a race. It’s like my grandfather used to say, ‘Every pitch is a whole new ballgame,’” Brown said. “And every run, you can’t dwell on what happened. You watch the video, and you think about it and you learn from it, you figure stuff out and you move on. And you get in the start next week and you try to ski your best. That’s all you can do, really.”
    Ironically, Brown and Kelley were launched off the course in nearly the same spot. Both were in sight of the finish when they skied out, but Kelley still called his debut on the World Cup “unbelievable.”
    “The circumstances in which I got the spot you don’t want to have, with T.J. Lanning getting hurt,” said Kelley, the son of Lindy Cochran Kelley and brother of Jess Kelley, a U.S. women’s team member. “But it was great to have the first one in front of a home crowd. I had my parents here, and my aunts and uncles, so It was a lot of fun.”
    Cochran was the first of the three to complete his first run, and he speculated on the nerves of his cousins at the start.
    “I’m sure they’re nervous, especially Timmy,” said Cochran, whose father Bob was the 1973 combined champ of the Hahnenkamm in Austria. “I think Roger has been kind of showing some nerves the past couple of days. He’s been putting a lot of pressure on himself. Timmy, it’s harder to tell. He kind of hides his emotions. He’s just kind of happy-go-lucky. I’m sure he’s pretty nervous.”
    It may have been the World Cup, but Kelley said Sunday’s race didn’t feel much different than skiing together with his cousins as kids.
    “We’re skiing together all the time, so we’re always talking about [skiing]. Today was no different than a Vermont Cup, Eastern Cup or a NorAm. We’re just out here trying to have fun,” he said.