Jakob Ingebrigtsen says he was ‘clearly a victim of manipulation' by father Gjert

New York Times

26-03-2025

Jakob Ingebrigtsen has told a court he felt he was 'clearly a victim of manipulation' by his father Gjert while growing up.
On Wednesday, the 24-year-old Olympic 5000m champion was questioned in his hometown of Sandnes, Norway by defence lawyers for Gjert Ingebrigtsen, his father, who is on trial for abuse charges in close relationships against Jakob and his younger sister, Ingrid.
The maximum penalty, if Gjert is found guilty, is six years, a restraining order can be issued and there may be a separate punishment from the Norwegian Athletics Federation.
Gjert has consistently denied all allegations, as well as the portrayal of events, and pled not guilty. Five other charges were dropped owing to lack of evidence and a sixth because it was brought out of time.
The case pertaining to Jakob was initially dismissed, then appealed. Once re-opened, Jakob was questioned by police again, recalling, as defence lawyer Heidi Reisvang said in cross-examination, '200 to 300 incidents of minor importance, where you were verbally abused.'
'It's difficult to distinguish between the (police) interrogations,' Jakob responded.
After a full day of questioning by the prosecution on Tuesday, the first line of cross-examination from Reisvang focused on the Ingebrigtsen brothers' public statement from October 19, 2023.
Jakob, along with older brothers Henrik and Filip (both professional runners and, like Jakob, once 1,500m European gold medallists), wrote an op-ed in Norwegian newspaper VG. In it, they claimed Gjert was 'very aggressive and controlling' and said he 'used physical violence and threats' against them.
Reisvang wanted to know why they went public, rather than to the police.
'If we went to the police, we didn't know what that would mean,' Jakob said. 'We grew up keeping it a secret, being trained not to talk about what happened at home.
'Some of us are public figures, so it was difficult to make these decisions together with the rest of the family. No matter what we did, it would be difficult to handle this publicly.'
He said they had been trying to 'gain peace' with Gjert 'since January 2022, without success.' It was that February when they split with him as coach, following an alleged incident of Gjert hitting Ingrid with a towel.
'Our siblings came together when we returned to Sandnes in February 2022. Everyone was distressed, and we discussed what to do,' Jakob recounted.
'Ingrid wanted to contact the police and file a report, but we didn't know what to do or what was best.'
They made contact with child welfare services, which Jakob called 'a cry for help'. Ingrid, now 19, moved out of the family home to live with elder brother Kristoffer from January 5, 2022, and has been in voluntary foster care since March of that year.
'I was in a difficult situation at the time and tried not to focus on this. I was in the middle of the season,' Jakob explained. 'I felt like people no longer believed me or us, and a lot of falsehoods were being spread that we had to respond to regularly.'
In the 20 months between Gjert stopping coaching the brothers and their statement, Jakob said they were 'bombarded with calls and contacted from all directions'.
He first made contact again — 'it must have been via text or phone' — with Gjert in the spring of 2022. Jakob spoke of one family gathering that year where Gjert 'went to my oldest brother (Kristoffer) and confronted him, saying that now everyone else had made peace except for him. It made it difficult to continue rebuilding the relationship.'
Jakob says he also received a text from Gjert — who he has avoided calling his father and has often referred to as 'the defendant' or 'the accused' throughout the trial — after the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where Jake Wightman beat him to win 1,500m gold.
'I found (it) very condescending. It felt like the accused took pleasure in my failure, and the message made that quite clear,' Jakob said.
At this point, Jakob's legal counsel, Mette Yvonne Larsen, spoke up when the defence lawyers tried to question his interpretation of the message as negative. Larsen called it a 'hopeless line of questioning. She (Reisvang) is putting words in his mouth.'
'Gjert said he could help me with training,' Jakob explained. 'It was obvious that he meant my failure in that race was due to our inability to train ourselves.'
It was another example cited by Jakob to show how Gjert, he feels, refused to give them space. Yesterday, Jakob spoke of an altitude training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2022. Gjert, who was no longer their coach, 'traveled halfway around the world to follow us. He deliberately scheduled his stays, his training camps, and competitions to coincide with our schedule'.
Gjert still coaches, training middle-distance Norwegian athletes Per Svela and Narve Gilje Nordas (the latter won 1,500m bronze, finishing just behind Jakob, at the 2023 World Championships). Jakob says he, Henrik and Filip 'trained together for several years' with Svela and Nordas, and that Svela was with them at the training camp in Spain when the alleged abuse of Ingrid took place.
For Jakob, Svela and Nordas were 'fully aware, clear that they couldn't continue working with Gjert,' but have since entered an 'even closer collaboration'. Jakob told the court that he and his brothers 'feel stabbed in the back.'
In an interview with NRK published on Tuesday, Nordas said: 'If it is proven he (Gjert) has been violent, then of course it is over. I stand by what I have always said: Innocent until proven otherwise. That is why he has the same role until a possible final judgment.'
He and training partner Svela have had their testimony brought forward earlier than initially scheduled, to mid-April from early May, to follow their training schedule.
Having yesterday told of the resistance he felt from Gjert when wanting to move out of the family home in 2019 — testifying that his father called him a 'terrorist' — Jakob elaborated on how he says his former coach 'tried to sabotage the relationship' with his childhood sweetheart and wife Elisabeth.
Defence lawyers showed a clip from Team Ingebrigtsen, a fly-on-the-wall docuseries that aired on Norwegian broadcaster NRK from 2016 to 2021 and followed the family. In one episode, Jakob wants Elisabeth to sleep over. His mother, Tone, approves, but says he must ask Gjert.
'That's probably not going to happen,' Gjert says. 'Come on, be nice,' Tone replies.
'Give me a reason to be nice. Give me a good argument, Elisabeth,' Gjert says.
Jakob retorts that 'it's scientifically proven that you sleep better if you sleep with someone you love', and Gjert permits, with conditions. 'But if I find out that you're awake after 11 PM, I'll be in that room before you can say 'cake,' and she'll be on the moped.'
Asked if that is an instance of him contradicting Gjert and, in the defence's view, not being abused or fearful as he is standing up to his father, Jakob says 'the situation would have been different if there hadn't been a camera crew. When someone was filming, things were portrayed in a cozy and humorous way'.
When asked directly, Jakob said he felt safer when film crews were at the house, but that the edits 'portrayed (Gjert's behaviour) humorously when it is actually something completely different'.
The cross-examination ends with the defence questioning Jakob's relationship with Gjert as a coach and how much he is responsible for his development and success.
Jakob said: 'My upbringing was a bit special, in that I have experienced a great sense of mastery and been at a high level for a long time. That shouldn't be overlooked, but this was communicated in an extreme way. I was told that I could, would, become the best runner in the world.'
'I feel I was clearly a victim of manipulation. I believed what I was told,' he recounted. 'If you're told something your whole life, as a child, you don't see any other options or desires. (My) motivation came from the defendant.'
The defence questioned him for not quitting athletics, as Jakob had other siblings who were not professional or had stopped running. 'I had no alternative. It was the life I lived,' he said.
Reisvang's penultimate question put things simply: Was Gjert's strict discipline — which he accepts as a trait — necessary for Jakob to achieve what he has?
'If you take away something from my upbringing, the outcome would naturally have been different,' Jakob said, not suggesting better or worse. For all his medals, titles and world records (he holds four currently), he feels 'enormous downside. I have lost a lot and sacrificed many things. I definitely don't have the same joy for the sport that I wished for when I was 11 or 12.'
Jakob is staying in court for the testimony of Ingrid, which starts on Wednesday and continues into Thursday. From Monday through Wednesday next week, Gjert will give his evidence.
The trial continues.
(Top photo: Lise Aserud/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)