Tadeusz Teodorowicz

Tadeusz Teodorowicz (1931-1965) also known as Teo was an international speedway rider from Poland and Great Britain.^[1]

Speedway career[]

Teodorowicz rode in the top tier of British Speedway from 1959-1964, riding for Swindon Robins.^[2] He was capped by both Poland and Great Britain and reached the final of the European Championship in 1956.^[3]

He would eventually become a British citizen after escaping and seeking political asylum from the communist East while on a tour of the Netherlands in September 1958. He spent four months in prison before gaining a Dutch passport and then moved to England. In England, he married Liliana Zajecka-Slonina, a local Swindon woman of Polish origin. In 1963 he finished eighth in the British Championships, sealing a reserve spot at the final of the 1963 Individual Speedway World Championship. The following year he reached the final of the British Speedway Championship in 1964.^{[citation needed]}

He was in the best form of his career at the time and then tragedy struck when he suffered major head trauma in a match while riding for Swindon Robins against West Ham Hammers. The match was held at the West Ham Stadium on 1 September 1964 and Teo was left with a skull fracture following a crash into the fence. He was transferred to a London hospital and then moved to Swindon before he died several months later, on 21 January 1965.^[4]

World final appearances[]

Individual World Championship[]

• 1963 - London, Wembley Stadium - Reserve - Did not ride

See also[]

Rider deaths in motorcycle racing

References[]

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