Nikolay Shtelbaums

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Nikolay Shtelbaums (Russian: Николай Штельбаумс) (born 1933) is a former Soviet/Russian speedskater. 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 Shtelbaums, 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 Shtelbaums (16:18.9) and Vladimir Shilykovskij (16:13.1) 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. At the 1960 Winter Olympics four weeks later, first Kjell Bäckman (16:14.2) and then Knut Johannesen (15:46.6) finally lowered the official Andersen world record, while Shtelbaums was disqualified in this race.

Shtelbaums participated in each of the Soviet-Russian allround championships from 1958 to 1963, with a 6th place from 1959 at Vologda his best result; on that occasion he also won the 10,000-m and bronze on the 5,000-m. He won silver on the 10,000-m twice, in 1958 at Sverdlovsk and in 1961 at Gorkij. However, he was never selected for international representation at allround championships.

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