Tadeusz Teodorowicz

Tadeusz Teodorowicz (1931-1965) also known as Teo was an international speedway rider from Poland and Great Britain.^[1] He earned 5 international caps for the Poland national speedway team.^[2]

Teodorowicz rode in the top tier of British Speedway from 1959-1964, riding for Swindon Robins.^[3] He was capped by both Poland and Great Britain and reached the final of the European Championship in 1956.^[4]

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.^[5] 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 nurse 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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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, this caused him to go into a coma. He was transferred to a London hospital and then moved to Swindon before he died several months later from Pneumonia, on 21 January 1965.^[8]

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

• List of rider deaths in motorcycle speedway