Kay Stenshjemmet

Kay Arne Stenshjemmet (born 9 August 1953 in Lillestrøm) is a former speed skater from Norway.

hort biography

Together with Amund Sjøbrend, Sten Stensen, and Jan Egil Storholt, Kay Stenshjemmet was one of the legendary "four S-es" (which sounds like "four aces" in Norwegian), four Norwegian top skaters in the 1970s and early 1980s.

During the 1976 European Allround Championships in Oslo, fellow Norwegian Sten Stensen (the defending European Champion), set a new world record on the 10,000 m, but Stenshjemmet still became European Champion by a tiny margin of only 0.005 points (equivalent to 0.10 seconds on the 10,000 m).

At the end of the 1975–1976 season, the world record on the 5,000 m was Piet Kleine's 7:02.38. On 19 March 1977, first Sergey Marchuk and then in the following pair Stenshjemmet were the first to skate the 5,000 m below seven minutes, with 6:58.88 and 6:56.9, respectively. Stenshjemmet's world record would last for five years, until Aleksandr Baranov skated 6:54.44.

Stenshjemmet was European Allround Champion in 1976 and 1980. He was also Norwegian Allround Champion in 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1981, as well as Norwegian Sprint Champion in 1976. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, Stenshjemmet won silver on the 1,500 m and on the 5,000 m, both behind Eric Heiden.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Stenshjemmet at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each:

Note that Stenshjemmet's personal record on the "big combination" was not a world record because Jan Egil Storholt skated 163.221 at the same tournament.

Stenshjemmet has an Adelskalender score of 163.481 points. His highest ranking on the Adelskalender was a third place.

References

* [http://www.skateresults.com/skater/show/1018 Kay Stenshjemmet at SkateResults.com]
* [http://www.sskating.com/index.php?name=STENSHJEMMET&fname=Kay-Arne&nat=NOR&lm=m Personal records from Jakub Majerski's Speedskating Database]
* [http://web.telia.com/~u46130641/adel.htm Evert Stenlund's Adelskalender pages]
* [http://www.isu.org/vsite/vnavsite/page/directory/0,10853,4844-181527-198745-nav-list,00.html Historical World Records] from the "International Skating Union"
* [http://www.skoyteforbundet.no/filarkiv/statistikk/nm_medaljer.pdf National Championships results] from "Norges Skøyteforbund" (the Norwegian Skating Association)