In 1987 he was supreme in the international skating-field. In january he won the European Championship in Trondheim, leaving Michael Hadschieff and Hein Vergeer behind. Gulyayev held his form until the World Allround Speed Skating Championships in Heerenveen. At this championship he was the first ever to achieve an overal total points, below 160.000: 159.356 was the new Allround World Record, the stood firm for 4 years, before being broken by Johann Olav Koss. With this astonishing points-total he left behind his fellow countryman Oleg Bozhev and the Austrian Michael Hadschieff . In Heerenveen he also set the 1500 metres world record at 1.52,70.
For the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary he was the big favourite for the 1500 metres and he was also considered to have a chance for a medal in the 1000 metres, especially after he won both distances at the World Cup in Inzell , one month befor the start of the games. But in the same month he got caught trying to smuggle 700 capsules of Dianabol , an anabolic steroid. As of this he did not defend his European and World title. But because of the fact that he never tested positive the IOC wasn't able to refuse Gulyayev at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Therefore he did travel to Calgary, being suspiciously watched by the sportsworld.
In the first distance he participated in, the 500 metres, Gulyayev did not finish because of a fall. Four days later in the 1000 metres, despite of being in a incredibly strong field of participating sprinters, he won the gold medal by setting the olympic 1000 m-record at 1.13,03, leaving no less persons than Uwe-Jens Mey and Igor Zhelezovski behind. Two days later he was the biggest favourite at the 1500 metres, but he finished only 7th.
After the games Gulyayev found himself uncapable of competing the international allround speedskating top. Therefore he switched his focus to the shorter, sprinting distances. At the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville he tried to defend his 1000 metres title, but he didn't get further than the 8th place. In march 1992 he became the Russian Sprint Champion in Kolomna, leaving the young Sergey Klevchenya behind.
In december 1985 Gulyayev gained a place in the top of the Adelskalender, the all time allround speedskating ranking. After the world championship in Heerenveen he even took over the first place in the ranking from his fellow countryman Viktor Shasherin . As of the Calgary olympics first Michael Hadschieff and, a few days after the Austrian, Eric Flaim took over the 1th place. But Nikolay Gulyayev would not leave the top 15 until march 1996, therefore standing in the Adelsranking for over 10 years.

References

• Speed Skating Results
• Speedskating.ru
• Adelskalendern