Andreas Jonsson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Häverödal, Sweden
Andreas Karl Rune Jonsson (born 3 September 1980 in Stockholm, Sweden)[1] is a Swedish former international motorcycle speedway rider.[2] He was a member of the Sweden speedway team that won the World Cup in 2003, 2004 and 2015.[3] He earned 26 caps for the Sweden national speedway team.[4]
Jonsson excelled at Under-21 level winning two Swedish U21 Championships in 1998 and 2000,[5] three Scandinavian titles and the 2000 Speedway Under-21 World Championship.[6] He began his career in his native Sweden riding for Rospiggarna in 1996 nut would be a regular rider in the British and Polish leagues. He started in Britain in 1998 for the Coventry Bees[7] and one year later in 1999 in Poland for Stal Gorzów Wielkopolski.
He soon became one of the sports leading riders and first participated in the Speedway Grand Prix (the World Championship) in 2001. He would remain a Grand Prix rider for 16 consecutive years until the end of the 2016 season.
He won the $100,000 first prize on offer at the 100th Speedway Grand Prix, billed as the 'Richest Minute in Motorsport'[8] and won eight Grand Prix events in total. His greatest achievement came in 2011, when he was the World Championship runner-up behind Greg Hancock.
In addition to nearly becoming the World individual champion he did win three World team Championships (Speedway World Cup) with Sweden in 2003, 2004 and 2015. He medalled another ten times.[9]
Andreas Jonsson has also won the Swedish Championship on seven occasions in 2006, 2007, 2009,
2010, 2011, 2013 and 2016.[10]
In late-August 2019, he announced his retirement from motorcycle speedway.[11]
