Pål Anders Ullevålseter (born 7 December 1968, in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

) is a Norwegian

rally raid Rally raid is a type of off-road motorsport event competed with different types of vehicles. Along with shorter Baja (cross-country rally), baja rallies, rally raid constitutes cross-country rallying. Both the Fédération Internationale de l'Aut ...

motorcycle rider. He came in second at the 2010

Dakar Rally The Dakar Rally () or simply "The Dakar" (), formerly known as the Paris–Dakar Rally (), is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). It is an off-road endurance event traversing terrain much tougher than convent ...

, captured the 2004

FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship The FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship was the premier championship of Rally raid racing, organized by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme The International Motorcycling Federation (Fédération Internationale de Motocycli ...

and has won the

Africa Eco Race Africa Eco Race is an annual rally raid, organised in France and run in North and West Africa, launched after the cancellation of 2008 Dakar Rally, and the subsequent moving of the rally to South America. The rally claims to have innovated to gi ...

twice.

Dakar Rally

He has competed in the

11 times and was the first Norwegian to complete the race. His best result came in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

when he came in second, finishing just over an hour behind winner

Cyril Despres Cyril Despres (born 24 January 1974) is a French rally racer and resident of Andorra. He won the Dakar Rally five times, in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2013, riding a KTM motorcycle. He also won the Red Bull Romaniacs, an enduro event, three tim ...

Africa Eco Race

He won the

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, dominating completely the races, and winning 16 stages. Prior to the 2016 edition, Ullevålseter had stated, his goal was not to win the race, but to raise as much money as possible for a school in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

, founded by Fabrizio Meoni, who died during the Dakar Rallye in 2005. In 2017, Ullevålseter finished second overall behind South African Gev Sella.

FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship

In 2004, he won the

. He took the third place in 2006 and captured silver in 2007.

Other accomplishments

Ullevålseter won the Rallye des Pharaons in 2004 and claimed victory at the

Merzouga Rally Merzouga Rally is a rally raid that takes place in Morocco every year since 2010 at the beginning of October in the big dunes of Merzouga. It’s a five-day race plus prologue and a marathon stage in the desert. The stages are varied and around 20 ...

in 2014.

Personal

He announced his engagement with former kickboxing world champion Mette Solli in May 2015. A celebrity in Norway, Ullevålseter won the 2007 season of "Isdans", the Norwegian equivalent of

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series broadcast from 2006 to 2014 and then from 2018 to 2025. It was presented by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern. Other previous hosts include Phillip Schofield and Christine Lampard. The series ...

, alongside Anna Pushkova. In 2013, he competed in "Skal vi danse", the Norwegian version of

Dancing With The Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

References

Norwegian motorcycle racers Enduro riders Off-road motorcycle racers Dakar Rally motorcyclists 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from Oslo {{Motorcycle-racing-bio-stub