Sweden national speedway team

The Sweden national speedway team are one of the major teams in international motorcycle speedway.

Sweden
Nation colour	Yellow
SWC Wins	11 (1952, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1994, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2015)

History

The Sweden speedway team has won the Speedway World Team Cup and Speedway World Cup on ten occasions and were a major force in the opening years of the tournament, winning four out of the first five, between 1960 and 1964. Key riders of the period were Ove Fundin, Rune Sörmander, Björn Knutson, Göte Nordin and Sören Sjösten.^[1][2][3]

The cup eluded them for 23 years between 1971 and 1993, but they regained the trophy in 1994, when Tony Rickardsson, Henrik Gustafsson and Mikael Karlsson were successful.^[4] Sweden bookended the original World Team Cup, winning the inaugural final at the Ullevi Stadium at home in Göteborg, in 1960 before winning the last World Team Cup in 2000 at the Brandon Stadium in Coventry, England.^[5]

They also went on to win in 2003 and 2004 and 2015. Additionally, they won the defunct Speedway World Pairs Championship five times.^[6]

Major tournament wins

World Team Championships

Year	Venue	Standings (Pts)	Sweden Riders and Pts
1960	Göteborg Ullevi	1. Sweden (44) 2. England (30) 3. Czechoslovakia (15) 4. Poland (7)	Ove Fundin	12
			Olle Nygren	12
			Rune Sörmander	11
			Björn Knutson	9
			Göte Nordin	-
1962	Slaný Slaný Stadium	1. Sweden (36) 2. Great Britain (24) 3. Poland (20) 4. Czechoslovakia (16)	Björn Knutson	10
			Sören Sjösten	10
			Ove Fundin	9
			Göte Nordin	4
			Rune Sörmander	3
1963	Vienna Stadion Wien	1. Sweden (37) 2. Czechoslovakia (27) 3. Great Britain (25) 4. Poland (7)	Bjorn Knutson	11
			Per Olof Söderman	10
			Ove Fundin	7
			Göte Nordin	6
			Rune Sörmander	3
1964	Abensberg Abensberg Stadion	1. Sweden (34) 2. Soviet Union (25) 3. Great Britain (21) 4. Poland (16)	Björn Knutson	11
			Göte Nordin	10
			Rune Sörmander	7
			Ove Fundin	6
			Sören Sjösten	0
1967	Malmö Malmö Stadion	1. Sweden (32) 2. Poland (26) 3. Great Britain (19) = Soviet Union (19)	Göte Nordin	11
			Bengt Jansson	9
			Ove Fundin	6
			Torbjörn Harrysson	6
			Per Olof Söderman	-
1970	London Wembley Stadium	1. Sweden (42) 2. Great Britain (31) 3. Poland (20) 4. Czechoslovakia (3)	Ove Fundin	11
			Bengt Jansson	11
			Anders Michanek	10
			Sören Sjösten	10
			Bernt Persson	-
1994	Brokstedt Holsteinring Brokstedt	1. Sweden (23) 2. Poland (20) 3. Denmark (17) 4. Australia (17) 5. USA (17) 6. Germany (16) = England (16)	Tony Rickardsson	12+2
			Henrik Gustafsson	11+2
			Mikael Karlsson	-
2000	Coventry Brandon Stadium	1. Sweden (40) 2. England (40) 3. USA (35) 4. Australia (29)	Tony Rickardsson	16
			Henrik Gustafsson	12+2
			Peter Karlsson	10+1
			Mikael Karlsson	2
			Niklas Klingberg	0
2003	Vojens Vojens Speedway Center	1. Sweden (62) 2. Australia (57) 3. Denmark (53) 4. Poland (49) 5. Great Britain (44)	Mikael Max	19+2
			Andreas Jonsson	12
			Peter Karlsson	10
			Peter Ljung	10
			David Ruud	5
2004	Poole Poole Stadium	1. Sweden (49) 2. Great Britain (48) 3. Denmark (32) 4. Poland (23)	Peter Karlsson	12
			Tony Rickardsson	12
			Antonio Lindbäck	9
			Mikael Max	9
			Andreas Jonsson	7
2015	Vojens Vojens Speedway Center	1. Sweden (34) 2. Denmark (32) 3. Poland (27) 4. Australia (26)	Andreas Jonsson	12
			Freddie Lindgren	11
			Antonio Lindbäck	7
			Linus Sundström	4

Titles

Preceded by Inaugural Champions	World Champions 1960 (1st title)	Succeeded by Poland
Preceded by Poland	World Champions 1962 (2nd title) 1963 (3rd title) 1964 (4th title)	Succeeded by Poland
Preceded by Poland	World Champions 1967 (5th title)	Succeeded by Great Britain
Preceded by Poland	World Champions 1970 (6th title)	Succeeded by Great Britain
Preceded by United States	World Champions 1994 (7th title)	Succeeded by Denmark
Preceded by Australia	World Champions 2000 (8th title)	Succeeded by Australia
Preceded by Australia	World Champions 2003 (9th title) 2004 (10th title)	Succeeded by Poland
Preceded by Denmark	World Champions 2015 (11th title)	Succeeded by Poland

World Pairs Championship

Year	Riders
1968	Ove Fundin & Torbjörn Harrysson
1973	Anders Michanek & Tommy Jansson
1974	Anders Michanek & Sören Sjösten
1975	Anders Michanek & Tommy Jansson
1993	Tony Rickardsson, Per Jonsson & Henrik Gustafsson

International caps (as of 2022)

Since the advent of the Speedway Grand Prix era, international caps earned by riders is largely restricted to international competitions, whereas previously test matches between two teams were a regular occurrence. This means that the number of caps earned by a rider has decreased in the modern era.^[7]

Rider	Caps
Andersson, Åke	7
Andersson, Bengt Olof	2
Andersson, Björn	10
Andersson, Daniel	1
Andersson, Jan	39
Andersson, Stefan	6
Bengtsson, Lennart	5
Bergqvist, Tommy	2
Blixt, Mikael	18
Brannefors, Bengt	20
Brannefors, Pierre	14
Carlsson, Arne	17
Danielsson, Hasse	15
Dannö, Roland	10
Dannö, Stefan	5
Davidsson, Jan-Olov	9
Davidsson, Jonas	14
Enecrona, Leif	16
Eriksson, Anders	8
Eriksson, Freddie	1
Forsberg, Birger	19
Forsberg, Dan	17
Fundin, Ove	99
Gerhardsson, Per Ake	1
Gustafsson, Henka	50
Harrysson, Torbjörn	26
Hellsen, Richard	22
Henriksson, Terje	3
Holmqvist, Hasse	30
Hultberg, Lars-Inge	1
Hultgren, Jurgen Per Gunnar	2
Ivarsson, Conny	40
Jansson, Bengt	107
Jansson, Lars	8
Jansson, Tommy	52
Johansson, Jorgen	12
Johansson, Tommy	32
Johansson, Lillebror	5
Johansson, Stefan	3
Johansson, Uno Ingemar	3
Jonasson, Thomas	4
Jonsson, Alfe Folke	10
Jonsson, Andreas	26
Jonsson, Per	65
Josefsson, Bo	13
Karlsson, Magnus	1
Karlsson, Niklas	4
Karlsson, Peter	40
Karlsson, Sören	29
Karlsson, Sune	7
Klingberg, Börje	5
Klingberg, Niklas	11
Knutson, Björn	42
Larsson, Bengt	26
Larsson, Leif	14
Lindbäck, Antonio	17
Lindgren, Freddie	19
Ljung, Peter	6
Löfqvist, Christer	42
Löfqvist, Dennis	7
Malmqvist, Gunnar	13
Max, Mikael	21
Michanek, Anders	101
Nahlin, Peter	32
Nermark, Daniel	5
Nilsen, Jimmy	53
Nilsson, Tommy	65
Nordin, Göte	45
Nygren, Olle	90
Nystrom, Kenneth	6
Olsson, Tony	26
Persson, Bernt	102
Pettersson, Tommy	7
Rickardsson, Tony	43
Ringstrom, Nils	4
Rohlén, Christer	2
Ruud, David	6
Salomonsson, Stefan	5
Samuelsson, Conny	9
Segerstrom, Olle	2
Simensen, Jan	25
Sjösten, Christer	8
Sjösten, Sören	76
Smith, Peter	1
Soderberg, Leif	1
Söderman, Peo	44
Sörmander, Rune	66
Stenlung, Erik	25
Svensson, Per Tage	14
Teurnberg, Mikael	9
Wahlmann, Leif	2
Wedin, Runo	1
Wirebrand, Bo	16
Zetterström, Magnus	3

References

1. Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 134. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
2. Bott, Richard (1980). The Peter Collins Speedway Book No.4. Stanley Paul & Co Ltd. p. 99. ISBN 0-09-141751-1.
3. Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
4. "1994 WORLD TEAM CUP". International Speedway. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
5. "FIM SPEEDWAY WORLD CUP/ SPEEDWAY OF NATIONS" (PDF). Motor Sport Top 20. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
6. Matthews/Morrison, Peter/Ian (1987). The Guinness Encyclopaedia of Sports Records and Results. Guinness Superlatives. p. 290. ISBN 0-85112-492-5.
7. "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 6 October 2023.