Ole Olsen

Ole Bjarne Olsen (born 16 November 1946) is a Danish former professional motorcycle speedway rider. He won the Speedway World Championship three times, in 1971, 1975, and 1978. He also won the World Long Track Championship in 1973. In 1979 Olsen won Speedway World Pairs Championship with Hans Nielsen. In 1978, 1981 and 1983 Olsen was the captain of Denmark's winning Speedway World Team Cup teams, while also finishing second in 1979 and 1982. Denmark could only place third in the 1980 World Team Cup Intercontinental Final and missed a place in the Final held at the Olympic Stadium in Wrocław, Poland, the same track where he made his World Individual Final debut in 1970. In 2015, Olsen was named an FIM Legend for his motorcycling achievements. Olsen's success greatly helped popularize the sport in Denmark which led to him building and opening a track at Vojens, the 15,000 capacity Vojens Speedway Center, which has held many Danish Championships as well as the 1988 and 1994 Speedway World Finals (1994 being the last under the old single meeting format) while it hosted the Speedway Grand Prix of Denmark from 1995 until 2002, after which the Danish GP was moved to the larger capacity Parken Stadium in Copenhagen. Career summary Olsen was born in Haderslev, Denmark. He was taught to ride a speedway bike in 1966 by his friend and great rival of the 1970s, New Zealand's Ivan Mauger. He first rode in the United Kingdom for the Newcastle Diamonds in the British League from 1967 until 1969 (Mauger was also with Newcastle at the time). Olsen came to Newcastle after Mauger persuaded the Newcastle promoter Mike Parker to sign him.