Profile:

Name: Gabriela Baranova

Nick: Gabi

Country of Origin: Slovakia

Country of Residence: USA

Born: November 16^th, 1979

Languages fluent: English, Slovak, Czech

Height: 173 cm/5’8”

Weight: 61kg/135lb

Education: 6 years of business education

Occupation: Professional Triathlete / Business Owner

Short Biography:

…during the summer of 1986 I learned how to swim. Back than we would have safe streets and very little crime so my parents would let me go to the summer pool with friends or even by myself when I promised I wouldn’t go to the deep end. Sure many times I had to sneak in with the ticket in hand while some adults were present otherwise kids weren’t allowed in. The strategy was to swim the corners of the pool – jump in near the corner and try to do 3-4 strokes of one style. By the end of the summer I was fully trained and when my dad signed me up for a swim team he couldn’t believe that I already knew how to swim. Since than…swimming was mostly the first thing on my mind in the morning and the last one in the evening .

I swam my way throughout all the education years. When I moved to Slovakian capital city , Bratislava in 1998 to persue couple more years of business education I have also joined a new swim team and became a member of National Lifeguarding team. I traveled a lot from my early years and visited many European countries. All this travel was a great experience and out of it also came an idea to visit the US as an exchange student for at least a year. I fast become to love this country and realized that this is where I would like to live.

However I had to put my swimming on a back burner while I explored the new life and the true means of this capitalistic country. After 4 years of sports inactivity in summer of 2004 I have realized that I need some kind of goal to once again spark that love for the sport. I have found a couple of local trail running races and figured I could run a 5K without falling over of killing myself . At my very first race I have discovered that it was a part of the greater collection of venues called Wisconsin off road series (www.wors.org) which also held Mountain bike races at the same race sites and sometimes even on the same dates. So I lubed my two hundred dollar bike from SportsMart and got myself a helmet. I had very educational experience at my first try of the such race and I ended up pushing the bike through the half of the course (Devil’s Head in Wisconsin) and while all the other girls were passing me I stared in eve and wondered if I ever would be able to come close to their speed and technicality.

2005 was the year of my first triathlon and I was looking forward to more challenge with each race. 2008 is when I became a pro and I hope that I will be able to come as close to the top as I can, and I will do my best to satisfy that hunger for the adrenalin of this multisport.

Carry on!!!