Pavel Antonavich Shurmei (, born 1 September 1976) is a

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian

rower Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars (called blades in the United Kingdom) are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are ...

who competed at two

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

and holds multiple world records on the

Concept2 Concept2, Inc. is an American manufacturer of Rowing (sport), rowing equipment and exercise machines based in Morrisville, Vermont. It is best known for its Drag (physics), air resistance indoor rower, indoor rowing machines (known as "ergomete ...

indoor rowing machine. He is one of the Belarusian volunteers of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Battalion. In March 2023, it became known that a criminal case was opened in Belarus against Pavel Shurmey in absentia. Since April 2024, he is the commander of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment.

Rowing career

Shurmei's primary discipline is

sculling Sculling is the use of oars to propel a boat by moving them through the water on both sides of the craft, or moving one oar over the stern. A long, narrow boat with sliding seats, rigged with two oars per rower may be referred to as a scull, its ...

Olympic Games

Shurmei competed at both the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Olympic Games with the Belarusian team. At the 2004 Games, Shurmei competed in the men's quadruple sculls. His team came third in their heat, qualifying for the semi-final, in which they finished third. This qualified them for the A final of the event, where they finished last of the six teams. At the 2008 Games, Shurmei competed again in the men's quadruple sculls. His team finished third in their heat, qualifying for the semi-final, in which they finished last. This meant that they progressed to the B final, where they finished 5th for a position of 11th overall.

Indoor rowing career

Shurmei has won the

CRASH-B Sprints The CRASH-B Sprints World Indoor Rowing Championships (CRASH-B Sprints) was the world championship for indoor rowing, raced over a distance of 2,000m. The regatta is sponsored by Concept2, and raced on their C2 rowers. Originally held in Harva ...

in the open category twice, in 2004 and 2005. He has also come 2nd twice, in 2013 and 2017. Shurmei has won the international ALFA indoor rowing competition seven times and hold the competition record since 2003 (2:39.8 over 1000m). He currently holds the world records in the 40–49 heavyweight category for both the 1000m and 2000m distances.

World rankings

Below are the season-end world rankings for Shurmei in various indoor rowing events where he finished in the top 50.

500m

1000m

2000m

Personal bests

Military career

He is serving in the Belarusian

Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment The Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment (also known as simply Połk Kalinoŭskaha, the Kalinoŭski Regiment or Bel Warriors), formerly the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Battalion until May 2022, is a group of Belarusian opposition volunteers, which was formed du ...

on the Ukrainian side in the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. Shurmei was

wounded in action Wounded in action (WIA) describes combatants who have been wounded while fighting in a combat zone during wartime, but have not been killed. Typically, it implies that they are temporarily or permanently incapable of bearing arms or continuing ...

and is among the first recipients of the

Military Virtue Medal The Military Virtue Medal () is a Romanian military decoration, instituted on April 8, 1872, by King Carol I. A previous version, called ''Pro Virtute Militari'', was established by Alexandru Ioan Cuza in 1860 for the veterans of the Dealul Spi ...

from the

Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic The Rada of the Belarusian People's Republic (, ) was the governing body of the Belarusian Democratic Republic. Since 1919, the Rada BNR has been in exile where it has preserved its existence among the Belarusian diaspora as an advocacy group ...

.Мэдаль за баявыя заслугі
ilitary Virtue Medal- BNR Rada official website

References

External links

* *
Pavel Shurmei
at

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

* * https://by.tribuna.com/amp/news/1107596894-eks-grebecz-pavel-shurmej/ * Каліновец ШУРМЕЙ – заход у Беларусь, зброя для Драздоў, раненне, вайна і вельмі шмат гора (SHURMEI of the

- entry into Belarus, weapons for the Drazdy, WIA, war and a lot of suffering)(in Belarusian) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FfYfKJGx6K0&feature=youtu.be {{DEFAULTSORT:Shurmei, Pavel 1976 births Living people Belarusian male rowers Olympic rowers for Belarus Rowers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 2008 Summer Olympics World Games bronze medalists Ukrainian military personnel of the Russian invasion of Ukraine Sportspeople from Lida Pro-Ukraine foreign volunteers in the Russian invasion of Ukraine Belarusian involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine World Games medalists for Belarus Medalists at the 2017 World Games