Background
He was born in Drammen, Buskerud.
He was born in Drammen, Buskerud.
At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo (his hometown), Helgesen and two other skaters skated 44.0 seconds on the 500 m, a time good enough for bronze. But because Helgesen had lost the heat against one of those two skaters, he was ranked 5th. 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.
Stated differently: In one tenth of a second, these skaters advanced more than one meter.
Helgesen skated for Oslo Skøiteklub ("Oslo Skating Club"), the same skating club many other famous Norwegian skaters skated for at one time or other – Roald Aas, Ivar Ballangrud, Bernt Evensen, Rudolf Gundersen, Oscar Mathisen, and Laila Schou Nilsen, amongst others To put these personal records in perspective, the WR column lists the official world records on the dates that Helgesen skated his personal records.
Helgesen has an Adelskalender score of 202.046 points.