and seven times overall by Fortuna Hjørring. The current manager of the national team is Kasper Hjulmand, and Simon Kjær is the captain. Legendary former players include Poul "Tist" Nielsen, Peter Schmeichel, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Allan Simonsen and Michael Laudrup. Handball Denmark has a long history with handball, with the sport originating in Denmark. Handball is one of the most popular pastimes in Denmark, only exceeded by football. There are over 146,000 licensed handball players in Denmark. Both the male and female national teams have reached high international rankings. Denmark women's national handball team have won the Olympics gold medal a record three times, the European Women's Handball Championship three times, and the World Women's Handball Championship once. The male national team won the European Men's Handball Championship in 2008 and 2012, won gold at the Olympics in 2016 and has become world champions three times in a row, in 2019, 2021 and 2023, which is a feat no other country has managed. Denmark co-hosted the 2019 tournament with Germany, and will do so again in 2025, this time with Croatia and Norway. Motorcycle speedway Denmark have marked their status as one of the leading motorcycle speedway countries. Denmark has won the Speedway World Cup four times in 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2014 and came second in 2007 missing only two points to Poland. Danish Speedway World Championship Champions include Ole Olsen, Erik Gundersen, Hans Nielsen (nicknamed "The Professor", four-times World Champion), and Nicki Pedersen, the 2003, 2007, and 2008 World Champion. Erik Gundersen and Hans Nielsen occupied the first two places at Gothenburg in 1984. In fact, there were two Danes on top of the table in each and every World final from 1984 to 1988 - a somewhat extraordinary record. Gundersen and Nielsen took three titles each as the Danes won six successive and seven out of eight titles from 1984 to 1991. Ice hockey There are seven Danish ice hockey players currently in the National Hockey League (NHL): Lars Eller of the Washington Capitals, Frederik Andersen of the Carolina Hurricanes, Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets, Alexander True of the Seattle Kraken, Oliver Bjorkstrand of the Seattle Kraken, Mads Søgaard of the Ottawa Senators and Jonas Røndbjerg of the Vegas Golden Knights. Other Danes who have played in the NHL include Frans Nielsen, Jannik Hansen, Peter Regin, Philip Larsen and Oliver Lauridsen. The first Dane to play