Barbara Warren (April 9, 1943August 26, 2008) was an

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counselor,

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

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, and

triathlete A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...

.Weber, Bruce (August 29, 2008 )
Barbara Warren, Winner of Endurance Competitions, Dies at 65.
''

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(December 27, 2008). Sports deaths in 2008.

Early life and education

Born Barbara Müller in

St. Johann in Tirol Sankt Johann in Tirol, called Sainihåns () in the local dialect, is a market municipality in the Kitzbühel district of Tyrol, Austria. In the regional ductus, the last syllable of the name is stressed as "Sankt yo-Hahn'" (). Geography St.&nbs ...

to Hans and Ingrid Mueller, she and her identical twin sister, Angelika Drake, left their farmhouse at 14 for high school at the Tyrolean capital of Innsbruck and then, at age 17, went on to study art history at the

Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze () is an instructional art academy in Florence, in Tuscany, in central Italy. It was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1563, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. Michelangelo, Benvenuto Cellini and ...

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of medieval European t ...

Career

The sisters occasionally modeled before moving to

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in 1965, where they began modeling full-time, eventually opening a school, agency and design boutique. Warren began performing under the

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

Barbara Angely, abruptly ending that career out of dissatisfaction with a jet-set lifestyle. Warren eventually married importer Armando Alvarez, which led to a four-year separation from her sister. Warren's family in 1980 moved to

Brownsville, Texas Brownsville ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Cameron County, Texas, Cameron County, located on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border, border with Matamoros, Tamaulipas ...

. In 1983, Warren began running recreationally. By 1985, Drake and her family had moved to

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. Warren, with her family, followed her sister and relocated to San Diego later the same year. Calling themselves "The Twin Team," the sisters began participating in a number of endurance sports, including their first standard

triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the ...

in 1987 and their first

Ironman Triathlon An Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), consisting of a swim, a bicycle ride and a marathon run completed in that order, a total of . It is widely consid ...

in 1988. All told, Warren completed 13 Ford Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii, winning her age group in the 2003 Ironman Kona.Barbara Warren: 2003 Women's 60-64 Age Group Champion
, Ironman.com Warren and her sister were profiled in ''Reckless: The Outrageous Lives of Nine Kick-Ass Women.''Mattioni, Gloria (2005). ''Reckless: The Outrageous Lives of Nine Kick-Ass Women.'' Seal Press, In the early 1990s, she met triathlete Tom Warren, who won the second Ironman competition in 1979, and the two married in 1995. Warren self-published three motivational books, ''Unleash the Power to Complete Your Goals,'' ''Become Exceptional,'' and ''Do What You Don't Want to Do''.Carlson, Timothy (August 30, 2008)
Endurance sports legend Barbara Warren dies after Santa Barbara bike accident.
Slowtwitch.com

Death

On Saturday, August 23, 2008, Warren broke her odontoid process and cervical vertebra 2 and was diagnosed as

paralyzed Paralysis (: paralyses; also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, r ...

from a bicycle crash that happened on a descent during the

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...

, triathlon. She was put on life support at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.Staff report (September 2, 2008). Obituary. ''

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'' According to an account from her family to the

San Diego Union-Tribune ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...

, she communicated through blinking that she wanted her

ventilator A ventilator is a type of breathing apparatus, a class of medical technology that provides mechanical ventilation by moving breathable air into and out of the lungs, to deliver breaths to a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathi ...

turned off, and, at the request of the family, a doctor removed her ventilator on August 26.Norcross, Don (August 28, 2008)
Endurance sports lose one of legendary twins.
''

Awards

The Santa Barbara Triathlon's Barbara Warren Community Spirit Award was named posthumously in her honor.Zant, John (August 26, 2009)
Sports Update: Cafarelli, Hill Receive Triathlon Award.
''

Santa Barbara Independent The ''Santa Barbara Independent'' is a news, arts, and alternative newspaper published every Thursday in Santa Barbara, California, United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a ...

Notes

External links

The Twin Team official site
* *
Those Twin Terrors Of Triathlon: Barbara Alvarez and Angelika Castaneda are age-group phenomena
'' article by Richard Hoffer in ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

,'' November 19, 1990
Barbara Warren: A reminiscence
via IronMan.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Warren, Barbara American female triathletes Austrian female triathletes Sports deaths in California 1943 births 2008 deaths Identical twin females Austrian twins Sportspeople from San Diego County, California 20th-century American sportswomen 20th-century Austrian women