Finn Helgesen (25 April 1919 – 3 September 2011) was a

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marath ...

from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Career

Competing in the 500 m he won the national title in 1947 and 1949 and an Olympic gold medal in 1948. In 1948 he set a new Olympic record at 43.1 seconds, a mere 0.1 seconds ahead of three skaters who placed second. At the

1952 Winter Olympics The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Oslo 1952, were a winter multi-sport event held from 14 to 25 February 1952 in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Discussions about Oslo hosting ...

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, Helgesen and two other skaters had a time of 44.0 seconds on the 500 m, a time good enough for bronze, but because Helgesen had lost in the heats against one of those two skaters, he was ranked fifth. Note that times were measured to a precision of only one-tenth of a second in those days – at the speeds on the 500 m, it was possible for two skaters to finish in the same time, while one of them finished more than one meter ahead of the other. Meanwhile, the speed was such that in one tenth of second skaters covered more than one meter. Helgesen skated for '' Oslo Skøiteklub'' ("Oslo Skating Club"), together with many other famous Norwegian skaters: Roald Aas,

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, Rudolf Gundersen,

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, and Laila Schou Nilsen, amongst others.Finn Helgesen
sports-reference.com

Personal life

He was born in Drammen as seventh out of ten siblings, but when he was seven years old his family moved to Strømmen, an industrial site next to Oslo. He was a promising young skater, placing third over 500 m at the national junior championships in 1940, but his career was interrupted by

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1942 he married and had a daughter, Brit. His wife died from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

three years later, and he moved with his young daughter to his parents' house. He remarried in 1953, and had two more daughters, Monica and Kate, and one son, Kyrre. Helgesen retired from competition in 1956 and became a speed skating coach at his club Oslo Skøiteklub. He also worked as a mechanic, first at Strømmen Værksted until 1960 and then at the Institute for Energy Technology.

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the ''WR'' column lists the official world records on the dates that Helgesen skated his personal records.Finn Helgesen
. SkateResults.com Helgesen has an Adelskalender score of 202.046 points.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helgesen, Finn 1919 births 2011 deaths Norwegian male speed skaters Olympic speed skaters for Norway Olympic gold medalists for Norway Speed skaters at the 1948 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1952 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in speed skating Medalists at the 1948 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Drammen Speed skaters from Buskerud 20th-century Norwegian sportsmen