Pavel Shurmei

Pavel Antonovich Shurmei (Павел Антонавіч Шурмей, born 1 September 1976) is a Belarusian rower who competed at two Olympic Games and holds multiple world records on the Concept2 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.

Olympic Games
Shurmei competed at both the 2004 and 2008 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 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.

Military career
He is serving in the Belarusian Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment on the Ukrainian side in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Shurmei was wounded in action and is among the first recipients of the Military Virtue Medal from the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic.