Andreas Karl Rune Jonsson (born 3 September 1980 in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
, Sweden) is a Swedish former international
motorcycle speedway
Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...
rider. He was a member of the
Sweden speedway team
The Sweden national speedway team are one of the major teams in international motorcycle speedway.
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 open ...
that won the
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...
in
2003
2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater.
In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War.
Demographic ...
,
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
and
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 ...
.
[
] He earned 26 caps for the
Sweden national speedway team.
Career summary
Jonsson excelled at Under-21 level winning two
Swedish U21 Championships in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
and
2000
2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year.
Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
, three Scandinavian titles and the
2000 Speedway Under-21 World Championship.
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
Coventry Bees are a motorcycle speedway team that existed from 1929 to 2018. They raced at Brandon Stadium, Brandon, Warwickshire, Brandon near Coventry, England. They are eight times champions of Britain.
History Origins and 1920s
The firs ...
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
Speedway Grand Prix are a series of stand-alone motorcycle speedway events over the course of a season used to determine the Speedway World Champion. The series started in 1995 replacing the previous format of a single event final. The first ...
(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'
and won eight Grand Prix events in total. His greatest achievement came in
2011
The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
, when he was the
World Championship runner-up behind
Greg Hancock
Gregory Alan Hancock (born June 3, 1970, in Whittier, California) is a former professional motorcycle speedway rider from the United States. As of 2023, he was one of only six riders to have won the individual World Championship four or more ti ...
.
In addition to nearly becoming the World individual champion he did win three World team Championships (
Speedway World Cup
The Speedway World Cup is a motorcycle speedway event for national teams held in different countries. The first edition of the competition in the current format was held in 2001 and replaced the old Speedway World Team Cup, World Team Cup which ...
) with Sweden in 2003, 2004 and 2015. He medalled another ten times.
Andreas Jonsson has also won the
Swedish Championship on seven occasions in
2006
2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.
Events
January
* January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute.
* January 12 – A stampede during t ...
,
2007
2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year.
Events
January
* January 1
**Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
,
2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
,
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 ...
,
2011
The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
,
2013
2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years).
2013 was designated as:
*International Year of Water Cooperation
*International Year of Quinoa
Events
January
* January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
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 ...
.
In late-August 2019, he announced his retirement from motorcycle speedway.
Speedway Grand Prix results
See also
*
Sweden national speedway team
*
List of Speedway Grand Prix riders
This is a complete list of riders who have entered a Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, FIM Speedway Grand Prix since 1995.
''After 2015 Speedway Grand Prix of Scandinavia, 2015 Scandinavian SGP in Stockholm (26 September 2015)''
Inde ...
*
Speedway in Sweden
Motorcycle speedway, Speedway in Sweden is one of the recognised 'four big leagues' in world speedway (along with Great Britain, Poland and Denmark). The Swedish leagues consists of three domestic leagues, an individual World Championship round of ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonsson, Andreas Karl Rune
1980 births
Living people
Swedish speedway riders
Speedway World Cup champions
Polonia Bydgoszcz riders
Coventry Bees riders
Swedish expatriate speedway riders in England
Lakeside Hammers riders
Expatriate speedway riders in Poland
Swedish expatriates in Poland
People from Norrtälje Municipality
Rospiggarna riders
Dackarna riders
Smederna riders
Sportspeople from Stockholm County