Olympic Stadium (Wrocław)

The Olympic Stadium (Polish: Stadion Olimpijski) is a multi-purpose stadium in Wrocław, Poland. It is the home stadium of speedway team Sparta Wrocław and American football team Panthers Wrocław. The stadium has a capacity now of 11,000 people and was supposed to be one of the main pitches on UEFA Euro 2012. The newly constructed Stadion Miejski was used for that event instead. History The stadium was built from 1926 to 1928 as Schlesierkampfbahn (Silesian Arena) according to a design by Richard Konwiarz. It was part of a larger sports complex in the city district of Zalesie (then Leerbeutel), again extended from 1935 to 1939 and renamed Hermann-Göring-Stadion under the Nazi German authorities. On 16 May 1937, it was the site of the legendary Breslau Eleven football match, when the Germany national football team defeated Denmark 8–0. Despite its current Polish name, the arena has never been an Olympic Games site (in particular, for the 1936 Summer Olympics); however the builder Richard Konwiarz achieved a bronze medal in the art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles for his architectural design. Heavily devastated during the Siege of Breslau in World War II, the stadium was rebuilt by the Polish municipal administration and named after General Karol Świerczewski. From the 1970s it was used by the Wrocław University School of Physical Education and comprehensively modernized with floodlights and an undersoil heating. The Wrocław city administration assumed ownership in 2006 and had the speedway racing track rebuilt, whereafter the smaller football pitch no longer met the requirements of UEFA stadium categories. The speedway track is 387 metres (423 yd) in length. Past events The stadium has hosted the Speedway Grand Prix of Poland in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2000. It also was a venue of the Speedway Grand Prix of Europe in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. The stadium has hosted american football competition and motorcycle speedway competition at 2017 World Games. Speedway World Finals Individual World Championship 1970 – Ivan Mauger – 15pts 1992 – Gary Havelock – 14pts World Pairs Championship 1975 – Sweden (Anders Michanek / Tommy Jansson) – 24pts World Team Cup 1961 – Poland (Marian Kaiser / Henryk Żyto / Florian Kapała / Mieczysław Połukard / Stanislaw Tkocz) – 32pts 1966 – Poland (Andrzej Pogorzelski / Marian Rose / Antoni Woryna / Andrzej Wyglenda) – 41pts 1971 – Great Britain (Ray Wilson / Ivan Mauger / Jim Airey / Barry Briggs / Ronnie Moore)* – 37pts 1977 – England (Peter Collins / Michael Lee / Dave Jessup / John Davis / Malcolm Simmons) – 37pts 1980 – England (Michael Lee / Chris Morton / Peter Collins / Dave Jessup / John Davis) – 40pts * The Great Britain Speedway Team contained riders from the Commonwealth nations until the early 1970s. Mauger, Briggs and Moore were from New Zealand, Airey from Australia and Wilson from England. Speedway World Cup 2001 – Australia (Jason Crump / Leigh Adams / Ryan Sullivan / Todd Wiltshire / Craig Boyce) – 68pts 2005 – Poland (Tomasz Gollob / Piotr Protasiewicz / Jarosław Hampel / Rune Holta / Grzegorz Walasek) – 62pts Speedway Grand Prix 1995 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland – Tomasz Gollob 1996 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland – Tommy Knudsen 1997 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland – Greg Hancock 1999 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland – Tomasz Gollob 2004 Speedway Grand Prix of Europe – Bjarne Pedersen 2005 Speedway Grand Prix of Europe – Tony Rickardsson 2006 Speedway Grand Prix of Europe – Jason Crump 2007 Speedway Grand Prix of Europe – Nicki Pedersen 2019 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland II – Bartosz Zmarzlik 2020 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland – – Artem Laguta 2020 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland II – Maciej Janowski 2021 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland – Bartosz Zmarzlik 2021 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland II – Bartosz Zmarzlik 2022 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland III – Dan Bewley 2024 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland III – Martin Vaculík National football team matches References Media related to Olympic Stadium in Wrocław at Wikimedia Commons