Nikolajs Štelbaums

Who is Nikolajs Štelbaums?

Nikolajs Štelbaums or Nikolay Shtelbaums is a former Soviet speedskater. As a child he was forced to move to Siberia along with his family in 1949, in connection with the Soviet mass deportation project Operation Priboi of more than 90,000 Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians. During his skating career he lived in Omsk, skating for Burevestnik.

In 1952, Norwegian skater Hjalmar Andersen set a legendary world record on the 10,000-m, with a time of 16:32.6. This record withstood several close attacks over the following seasons. The first skater to better the Andersen time was Štelbaums, who did 16:31.4 in Chelyabinsk on 4 February 1959. His result was not officially recognised by the International Skating Union, however, and therefore does not feature on the official world record lists.

On 31 January 1960 at Medeo, both Štelbaums and Vladimir Shilykovskij skated below Andersen's record time, at the traditional "Prize of the Soviet Ministry of the Kazakh Republic" competition; but again these world record times were not officially ratified by the ISU.