Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå

European Championship XCO Gold Medals: Moscow, Russia (2012), Dohnany, Slovakia (2011), Kluisbergen, Belgium (2005), Walbrzych Ksiaz, Poland (2004), Kaprun, Austria (2003), Zürich, Switzerland (2002) European Championship Marathon Gold Medals: Tartu, Estonia (2009), Alpago, Italy (2006).2007: Norwegian Sports Gala ceremony: award for Female Athlete of the Year ("Årets kvinnelige idrettsutøver").2005: Norwegian Sports Gala ceremony: the Title for Endurance ("Utholdenhetsprisen"), Name of the Year ("Årets navn"), and The Athletes' Own Award ("Utøvernes egen pris").2004: Norwegian Sports Gala ceremony: the Title for Endurance ("Utholdenhetsprisen"), Name of the Year ("Årets navn"), and The Athletes' Own Award ("Utøvernes egen pris").1995: Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå entered the world mountain bike racing scene summer 1995 after having her first off-road training ever in April the same year.She got a 3rd place in her first World Cup race in Plymouth (GBR), and signed up with American Eagle, a Dutch bicycle team and manufacturer, in October -95.She was more or less not racing this summer, but finished of the season at the World Championship with a 12th place (må sjekke dette da jet er litt usikker- mulig en 14 plass!!!)She got 4th place overall in the World Cup series, which consisted of 12-14 races during the season these years, with 10 of them counting on the total WC score.DBS used to be one of the big brands on the Nordic market and were the main sponsors for the Norwegian national cycling teams.Gunn-Rita's efforts contributed enormously to qualifying the Norwegian Road National Team for the Sydney Olympics in 2000.2002: In 2002 Gunn-Rita won the gold medal in the European XCO Cross Country Championships (Olympic distance) at Zürich.With this spectacular return after her unfortunate absence, several teams showed interest in signing Gunn-Rita up, but she decided to remain loyal to Mérida.2003: 2003 was the first year Gunn-Rita was the overall winner of the World Cup with 1st place at the WC races in Austria, Scotland, Canada twice, and Germany.The season of 2004 was extremely busy for Gunn-Rita and Kenneth due to a lot of promotional work for various sponsors, in Japan and Taiwan and other places.She signed a new 3-year contract with Mérida which doubled her wage, but put an upper limit on her bonus money for wins.In the World Cup race at Fort William, Scotland, she punctured and had to run all the way to the technical zone to get a new wheel, and even so finished number 4, only a few seconds behind the winner.Gunn-Rita performed much promotional work for sponsors this year, in Beijing, Estonia, Norway, etc., and took part in very many races in different time zones.At the second World Cup race of the year, in Offenburg, she started to notice stomach problems and her energy levels descended.She won the European Championship XCO (Olympic distance) Bronze Medal in Germany, and she got 1st place in the World Cup race in Spain.She received a lot of help from experts to prepare form tops for big venues, and this led to less restitution.Gunn-Rita was keen to continue within the world of cycling, but perhaps mainly as an ambassador, as neither of them knew what it would be like to combine having a child with racing.Therefore, Gunn-Rita went to Estonia six months after the birth to take part in the European Championships, a race track she knew well from before, and won the gold medal.She started racing in the World Cup again, beginning in Darby Forest in the UK, but had naturally fallen to a ranking of number 150 due to not taking part for a year.The European Championships this year was the Gunn-Rita Marathon in Italy, an extremely demanding race track, and her foundation wasn't the best.However, due to many bouts of sickness, the foundation training during the winter preceding the cycling season was more or less totally lost.Up the hill she had been number 7 or 8, then on the first descent she chose the B-line and her speed was too low, so she overbalanced and crashed, taking a very hard hit to the hip.Where other Norwegian athletes experienced a bad 2012 Olympics and stated that they were quitting sports careers, Gunn-Rita took the negative media like an adult.She was also considered one of the favourites at the end of season World Championship XCO at Hafjell, Norway, but experienced one of these terrible days on the bike and only managed a top-ten place.She has her husband and coach, Kenneth, with her 100% and that means she is fully supported every day in her training and preparation for more successes on her bike.Gunn-Rita is motivated and passionate about her sport, she still loves winning, and she is still fully committed to working hard every day to perform at the highest level in international Mountain-biking for another two seasons.