Ailo Mikkelsen Gaup (born 22 January 1979 in

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

) is a former Norwegian Freestyle Motocross rider, who invented the Underflip. Gaup has won the world title in FMX. Gaup originally started his career competing in motocross, but switched to FMX competitions. He announced his retirement in October 2009.

Early years

Ailo was born in Tromsø to parents Mikkel Aslaksen Gaup and author

Laila Stien Laila Stien (born 16 May 1946 in Hemnes, Helgeland) is a Norwegian novelist, poet, author of children's literature and translator from Hemnes. She grew up in Rana and later lived in Finnmark. Stien made her literary debut in 1979 with the short ...

and grew up there and in Máze (Masi) in

Kautokeino Kautokeino ( no, Kautokeino; se, Guovdageaidnu ; fkv, Koutokeino; fi, Koutokeino) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino. Other villages ...

municipality. His family moved to

Alta Alta or ALTA may refer to: Acronyms * Alt-A, short for Alternative A-paper, is a type of U.S. mortgage * American Land Title Association, a national trade association representing the land title industry * American Literary Translators Associatio ...

when Ailo was fourteen years old. As a ten-year-old he sold fish and painted houses to be able to buy a mini-motorcycle and began motorcross cycling. As a sixteen-year-old, he moved to the capital of

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) 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 ...

to enroll in the motorcross line at The Norwegian College of Elite Sport in

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

Career

Today, Ailo lives in

Kongsberg Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud, Viken county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production ...

, where he has been located since 2000. He started competing in freestyle motocross in 1999 and won the Norwegian Championship. In 2002 Ailo entered his first international freestyle motocross contest and ended up second overall at his first World Cup contest. Ailo was the first European to perform a backflip on a motorcycle, in 2003. He was also the first European do long distance backflips, a year later. In November 2004 Ailo invented the Underflip, which is a sideways flip on a motorcycle. It took almost two years until anyone else was able to perform this trick. The Underflip has later been copied by riders all over the world. Gaup has to date won six Norwegian Championships in two different sports, motocross and freestyle motocross/FMX, and won the World Cup in 2003 and 2004. He was crowned World Cup Champion in FMX in 2004 and again in 2007, making him the only rider to win the World Championships in freestyle motocross twice. He has stated that in spite of his profession, he is scared of heights. On 17 November 2007 he became the first Norwegian and the first Sámi to win a gold medal in FMX. As many of his relatives, Ailo has also done some acting. He played Ryzard, a gymnast in a small circus in the movie "Dobbel Salto" in 2005. He also plays the young version of the main character Eivind, in "Jernanger".

External links

Official website

Ailo Gaup at expn.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaup, Ailo Living people Freestyle motocross riders Norwegian motorcycle racers Norwegian Sámi people Sportspeople from Tromsø People from Kongsberg Norwegian Sámi sportspeople 1979 births X Games athletes