Boris Shilkov


Boris Arsenyevich Shilkov was a speed skater.

Skating career

Competing for the Soviet Union, Shilkov lived in Leningrad, where he worked as an engineer. He became Soviet Allround Champion in 1953 and made his international debut three weeks later at the World Allround Championships, where he won silver behind teammate and rival Oleg Goncharenko after having just recovered from an illness. The following year he became Soviet Allround Champion again, European Allround Champion, and World Allround Champion.
In an international meet at Medeo, on 9 January 1955, Dmitry Sakunenko became the first person to skate the 5000 m below eight minutes, with 7:54.9. In a later pair Shilkov then improved this world record to 7:45.6. The following year, at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, he became Olympic Champion on the 5000 m, finishing only three seconds above his own world record.
Despite his 5000 m results, Shilkov had trouble with the 10000 m. This is illustrated by his performances at the World Allround Championships of 1953, 1955, and 1957 : At each of these three World Championships he was in the lead after three distances, but lost too much on the final distance – the 10000 m – to win the title. His bronze medal at the World Championships of 1955 was 0.026 points behind the silver medallist – a mere 0.52 seconds of difference on the 10000 m.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Shilkov at major championships, listing the years in which he won each:
ChampionshipsGold medalSilver medalBronze medal
Winter Olympics1956
World Allround19541953
1957		1955
European Allround1954
Soviet Allround1953
1954
1955

Records

World record

Over the course of his career, Shilkov skated one world record:
DisciplineTimeDateLocation
5000 m7.45,69 January 1955 Medeo

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the last column lists the official world records on the dates that Shilkov skated his personal records.
DistanceTimeDateLocationWR
500 m41.930 January 1960Medeo40.2
1,500 m2:10.420 January 1955Medeo2:09.8
3,000 m4:55.726 December 1960Kirov4:40.2
5,000 m7:45.69 January 1955Medeo8:03.7
10,000 m16:50.220 January 1955Medeo16:32.6

Shilkov was number one on the Adelskalender – the all-time allround speed skating ranking – for a total of 1,518 days, divided over three periods between 1955 and 1960. He has an Adelskalender score of 182.436 points.

Coaching career

After retiring from competitions Shilkov worked as a skating coach and functionary until 1989. He started at Trud Leningrad in 1959–62, then in 1962–64 and 1966–68 headed the national team, and spent his later years with Dynamo Leningrad. His pupils included Ants Antson, Igor Ostashov, Stanislav Selyanin and Vladimir Sveshnikov. Shilkov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1957.