Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå is a Norwegian mountain biker. She is one of the most decorated riders in history, a multiple world and European champion in both marathon and cross-country. At the UCI World Championships, she has taken gold in cross country four times (in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006) and won the marathon another four times (in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008). At European level she has six golds in cross-country (from 2002 – 2005 and again in 2011 and 2012) and two in marathon (2006 and 2009) She is also the Olympic gold medallist from Athens 2004, but suffered bad luck with crashes and mechanical failures at the games in Beijing and London.
Gunn-Rita was born in February 1973 near Stavanger. She was a active and athletic child, interested in skiing, ice skating, running and football, but was not an early starter on bikes in any way. In fact it was not until 1995 that she was introduced to mountain biking. That introduction came in April by way of an invitation to join her local club on a ride. Two months later she was Norwegian champion. Three months after that, she took the Nordic Championships in Finland. By October 1995 she had signed terms with her first professional team. She currently rides for the Multivan Merida Bikes.
Before she got into mountain biking, Gunn-Rita had studied journalism at university in Stavanger and was working for her local newspaper, Strandbuen. Her husband, Kenneth Flesjå, is also her coach and manager.