Andreas Jonsson

Andreas Karl Rune Jonsson (born 3 September 1980 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish former international motorcycle speedway rider. He was a member of the Sweden speedway team that won the World Cup in 2003, 2004 and 2015. 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 and 2000, 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 and one year later in 1999 in Poland for Stal Gorzów Wielkopolski.

Jonsson 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.

Jonsson 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, when he was the World Championship runner-up behind Greg Hancock.

In addition to nearly becoming the World individual champion, Jonsson did win three World team Championships (Speedway World Cup) with Sweden in 2003, 2004 and 2015. He medalled another ten times.

Jonsson has also won the Swedish Championship on seven occasions in 2006, 2007, 2009,2010, 2011, 2013 and 2016.

In late-August 2019, Jonsson announced his retirement from motorcycle speedway.

Speedway Grand Prix results Year Position Points Best Finish Notes 2001 24th 7 11th One ride as a wild card in Sweden 2002 14th 70 4th 2003 10th 76 4th 2004 7th 97 2nd 2005 8th 80 2nd 2006 4th 119 Winner Won home event in Malilla (Sweden) 2007 10th 90 Winner Won events in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Gelsenkirchen (Germany) 2008 7th 100 4th 2009 5th 116 Winner Won event in Vojens (Denmark) 2010 9th 95 Winner Won event in Bydgoszcz (Poland) 2011 2nd 125 Winner Won events in Terenzano (Italy), Torun (Poland) and Gorican (Croatia) 2012 9th 88 2nd 2013 13th 64 7th 2014 6th 103 Winner Won event in Vojens (Denmark) 2015 10th 88 3rd 2016 14th 53 8th 2018 =19th 7 =9th 1 event only