Ingebrigtsen's father accused sons of ‘perfect character assassination', court told

The Guardian

01-04-2025

The father of the double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen accused his sons of a 'perfect character assassination' on a secret recording made after they fired him, a court has been told.
Gjert Ingebrigtsen also claimed that he had been dragged 'down to hell' after he was referred to child services following an incident in January 2022 where he is accused of whipping his daughter, Ingrid, in the face with a wet towel.
But Henrik Ingebrigtsen, the older brother of Jakob who competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, told his father that he only had himself to blame for the split – and what had happened subsequently – because he had been 'violent' towards Ingrid.
On another extraordinary day in Sandnes, Norway, the court was told long extracts of a terse and often argumentative 90-minute conversation, which had been recorded by Henrik without Gjert's knowledge a week after the towel incident. Gjert described that act as a 'betrayal'.
At one point in the recording Gjert told Henrik: 'You have fired me as a coach. You have rejected us as parents and you are carrying out a perfect character assassination on top of that. What we have worked for, you erase with a stroke of a pen. And then the last bit of my income goes away.'
On another occasion they discussed Ingrid, who was in her mid-teens at the time of the incident, having to go to child services. 'These people want to hurt me and drag me down to hell,' Gjert told Henrik. 'They are going to destroy me as a human being.'
However Henrik said that the brothers had no choice given the circumstances. 'We cannot accept your treatment of Ingrid either,' he said. 'We cannot accept that at all. That's what started all this.'
Gjert responded: 'I haven't made enough mistakes to deserve to be fired as coach of my boys.'
On another occasion, Gjert said: 'If someone invites me to war, I won't turn the other cheek. I'll go to that war. With absolutely everything I have. By all means. That's how I'm made.'
Henrik replied: 'There is no war.'
Towards the end of the conversation, Gjert told his son. 'I never thought you would do something like this to me.'
Henrik replied: 'We didn't think you would be violent towards Ingrid either.'
Gjert, who is facing six years in jail for abusive behaviour towards Jakob and Ingrid, denies all allegations of violence.
Earlier in the day, Gjert was again questioned about the towel incident with his daughter – but insisted that he had pulled a wet towel in the direction of her fingers rather than whip her in the face.
'I don't associate the movement with a blow,' he said. 'Whipping and hitting with a towel are the wrong terms. It's more of a pull. I pull the towel towards her finger. And I don't have a concrete idea whether I hit the finger. It's a relatively small towel. We stand relatively far apart. The pull I do is done – I think – twice.'
On Monday Gjert told the court that a red mark on Ingrid's face in a photograph taken after the alleged incident may have been caused by a skin condition – and not, as she alleges, by being hit.
'The situation was heated,' Gjert said. 'Ugly things were said in loud voices. There was a reaction from me that was not very good on my part, I can't say anything more.'
Gjert also accepted that on another occasion he had pushed his daughter with both hands for which he later apologised. However he insisted the push was not a violent force.
Under cross-examination, Gjert was also asked about an incident where he was alleged to have hit Jakob. The prosecutor noted that Jakob's brother Filip had said he had seen 'the incident from several angles, and believes it may be because it went on for so long'.
However Gjert denied this was the case. 'I still have no recollection of having beaten Jakob or anyone else – either in my household or others,' he replied.
Under cross-examination, Gjert also denied calling Jakob 'stupid', an 'idiot', and 'a terrorist' when he was growing up.
The trial, which is due to last until 16 May, continues.