The Russia national speedway team are one of the major 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 ...

nations.

History

As the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union speedway team (which was composed predominantly of Russian riders but also Ukrainian, Latvian and Belarus riders) first competed in the 1961 edition of the

Speedway World Team Cup The Speedway World Team Cup was an annual motorcycle speedway, speedway event held each year in different countries. The competition started in 1960 and was replaced with the Speedway World Cup in 2001. Format From 1960 until 1985, each team c ...

, where they finished second in the East European round. Throughout the history of World Team Cup, the team were regular World Cup contenders from 1961 until their final World Cup in 1983. They reached the final on 12 occasions, winning the silver medal five times, in 1964, 1966, 1971, 1972, 1975 and the bronze medals three times, in 1967, 1969 and 1973.

As Russia

Following the

Dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

at the end of 1991, the riders then competed for their new speedway nations of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and Russia. The Russian national team first competed in the World Team Cup at the

1993 Speedway World Team Cup The 1993 Speedway World Team Cup was the 34th edition of the FIM Speedway World Team Cup to determine the team world champions. The final was staged at the Brandon Stadium in Coventry, England. The United States won their fourth title. First ...

, finishing 1st in Group D (the fourth tier of the World Cup). They quickly established themselves as a major contender and reached the World Cup final in 1996 and winning the silver medal. The team experienced a disappointing period from 1997 and although they regularly finished inside the top ten, it was not until 2009 that they reached a final, competing in the 2009 Speedway World Cup final. They then won bronze medala at the

2012 Speedway World Cup The 2012 FIM Speedway World Cup (SWC) was the twelfth Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, FIM Speedway World Cup, the annual international Motorcycle speedway, speedway world championship tournament. It took place between 7 July and 14 ...

and the

2017 Speedway World Cup The 2017 Monster Energy FIM Speedway World Cup (SWC) was the seventeenth Speedway World Cup, the annual international motorcycle speedway world championship tournament organised by the FIM. The next edition would not be held until six years lat ...

. The

Speedway of Nations The Speedway of Nations is a motorcycle speedway event for national teams, held each year in a different country. The first edition of the competition in the current format took place in 2018. It was the first time an official FIM international ...

was introduced in 2018 and Russia dominated the first three years of the event, becoming the world champions from 2018 to 2020. However, their run came to an end due to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. On 6 March 2022, the

Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme The International Motorcycling Federation (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) or (FIM) is the global governing/sanctioning body of motorcycle racing. It represents 123 national motorcycle federations that are divided into six continent ...

banned all Russian motorcycle riders, teams, officials, and competitions.

Major world medals

World Team Cup/World Cup/Speedway of Nations

International caps

Since the advent of 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 ...

era, international caps earned by riders is largely restricted to international competitions, whereas previously test matches between two teams were a regular occurrence.

References

{{Speedway national teams National speedway teams

Speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida. *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta. *Indianapolis Motor Spe ...