Speedway is not a very popular sport around the world. Apart from the Scandinavian countries and Poland, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, in other regions of the world, very few people practice or are interested in this discipline.
The most important speedway events
Of course, the speedway hosts its most important international competitions. The most important are undoubtedly the world championships, organized since 1936 with an interruption in 1939-1948.
They are played in a tournament format, where it usually takes 9 to 12 rounds to determine the world champion, depending on how the schedule is organized.
The Poles became world champions four times. The current champion is Bartosz Zmarzlik, who was the first representative of our country to defend his title, having won it for the first time in 2019.
Previously, Tomasz Gollob achieved this feat in 2010 and Jerzy Szczakiel in 1973. In addition, our speedway riders have repeatedly won individual medals in this series.
In addition, the World Team Championships have been held since 1960, where our players can also boast of many successes. The Poles have won gold 13 times and have won a total of 33 medals, placing them in 2nd place in the all-time medal table, just behind Denmark.
Is speedway an Olympic sport?
Additionally, the European Speedway Championships are also held, but they do not have as much prestige as the World Championships.
And what about the Olympic Games? Well, speedway is not and never has been an Olympic discipline. There were tentative ideas to include this sport in the Olympic program, but they never materialized into reality.
Since speedway is not a popular enough sport and Poland has become the mainstay of this discipline in recent years, it is not expected that it will ever become an Olympic event.
