The Ingebrigtsen trial: ‘I became too much of a coach – the coach was not necessarily a kind man'

New York Times

7 hours ago

In a case involving a double Olympic champion and his sister making serious accusations of long-term abuse against their father and former coach, perhaps it was always going to conclude with 'no winners'.
That was how Gjert Ingebrigtsen's defence lawyers, John Christian Elden and Heidi Reisvang, described it after their client was acquitted of abuse charges against one of his sons, the track and field star Jakob, and his daughter, Ingrid.
Advertisement
Gjert must, however, pay 10,000 NOK compensation (£742; $1,011) and has been given a suspended 15-day sentence after being found guilty of one count of assault against Ingrid; after an incident in January 2022 in which he is said to have whipped his daughter, now 18, with a towel after an argument. 'By then, I had felt trapped in my own home for so long, and so much time had passed,' Ingrid told the court.
Abuse in close relationships is punishable by a maximum six-year sentence in Norway and the prosecution had pushed for two-and-a-half years in prison for Gjert, who was alleged to have abused both Jakob and Ingrid, two of his seven children — claims he strenuously denied.
It was said in court that Jakob had recalled '200 to 300 incidents' between 2008 and 2018 where he was 'verbally abused' by his father and the athlete testified that his 'upbringing was largely shaped by fear'. Gjert, 51, labelled him a 'privileged boy' who has been carried by his parents on a 'golden throne', and ultimately the court found in favour of the father, saying in a statement Jakob and his siblings' evidence was 'credible' but it found 'reasonable doubt about the defendant's guilt'.
Jakob, who was coached by Gjert until early 2022 and won Olympic 1,500m gold with him in 2021, testified for one and a half days in March at the Sor-Rogaland District Court in the family's hometown in Sandnes, Norway. So too did his younger sister Ingrid, during a trial which lasted almost two months.
The dynamics of this high-achieving family were already familiar around the world owing to the Team Ingebrigtsen docuseries, which followed the family for five years between 2016 and 2021, capturing the build-up to the Tokyo Olympics where Jakob won gold. It also included the 2018 European Championships, where Jakob won double gold over 5,000m and 1,500m, beating two of his brothers, Henrik and Filip, in the 1,500m final.
But now the Ingebrigtsens' lives have been dissected in the most public way imaginable: in open court. All seven siblings — Kristoffer, Henrik, Filip, Martin, Jakob, Ingrid and William (in descending age order) — were, as Mette Yvonne Larsen, the lawyer for Jakob and Ingrid, put it, 'more than just witnesses'.
Advertisement
The Ingebrigtsen siblings had pushed for the trial to be in public while Gjert wanted it to happen behind closed doors. Tone Ingebrigtsen, Gjert's wife for nearly 40 years and mother to the seven siblings, only testified, however, after being granted 'special circumstances' to do so in private, on the basis that her evidence was seen as pivotal.
In total, more than 40 witnesses were called, including the other five siblings, extended family members, athletes and other relevant individuals.
It took only a month for Gjert to be acquitted of all of the abuse charges after his lawyers said the court did not find sufficient evidence that he had 'acted in a manner that constitutes abuse'. The two sides' explanations, it was said by the defence lawyers, were found by the court to 'appear equally plausible'.
Larsen said in a statement that 'the court has believed much of what they described about violence, believed the evidence supported the charges in the indictment — and that we were able to present sufficient proof — but concluded that the threshold for domestic abuse has not been met.'
'It's a very brief verdict, so one might wonder why it took so long,' she added.
'Jakob finds it very strange,' Larsen said. 'You describe violence, you're believed, and yet he (Gjert) isn't convicted.'
Elden and Reisvang said that the 'decisive factor' in the verdict 'was that there was no evidence that Gjert created a continuous fear in his children.' They added in a statement: 'The court emphasised that several close family members and outside witnesses have not seen or experienced abuse.'
In court, Gjert had described his background and upbringing and offered these as explanations for why 'over time, the coach replaced the father. I became too much of a coach — the coach was not necessarily a kind man.'
Advertisement
He accepted this was 'foolish, but I couldn't stop myself, and no one else stopped it either'.
On Monday, after the verdict was published, Jakob posted a picture on Instagram of himself with his wife Elisabeth and their daughter Filippa, in which he said the main goal of his life, and the one he cares most about, 'is that Filippa will love and respect me for her upbringing'.
'I will give her space if space is what she asks for,' he added. 'And I will love and respect her unconditionally.'
In 2022, Jakob, Henrik and Filip split from Gjert as a coach, following the assault on their sister Ingrid for which he was convicted more than three years later.
'The break with Gjert in January 2022 has been the most important thing for Jakob,' said Larsen. 'He was never focused on pressing charges or seeing his father go to prison; he just wanted to be free of the regime he had lived under. The wounds are there, and it will take time to heal.'
Both Jakob and Ingrid called Gjert 'the defendant' and not their dad during their testimonies, and Larsen noted on Monday that 'if Jakob were still living under that regime, receiving a verdict like this would have been much harder'.
The 24-year-old, who has 5,000m and 1,500m Olympic golds plus four world titles and four current world records, said during his testimony that, although his 'upbringing was a bit special' — because he had two older, professional running brothers to learn from and train with — he felt 'like I was clearly a victim of manipulation'.
'I've become a machine that performs when asked; an athlete who performs really well under pressure and in inhuman conditions,' Jakob testified. 'But that's because I've had a lot of practice. I had to do it to survive as a teenager.
'I can't say that nothing I've done has meant anything, but at the same time, it has come with an 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.'
Advertisement
Jakob wrote an op-ed in the Norwegian newspaper VG, which was published on May 15, just after the trial concluded.
'The court proceedings have had major and upsetting consequences, regardless of what the verdict will be,' he said. 'We have known this all along, yet it was important to tell our story. I feel a great relief now that I no longer have to hide anything — it has brought my siblings and my new family closer together.'
The Norwegian Athletics Federation has told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that it will not change its position in denying Gjert, who still coaches elite runners, to be granted accreditation to Olympics or the World Championships.
The initial decision was taken after Henrik, Filip and Jakob published an op-ed in VG in October 2023 in which they described their father as 'aggressive, controlling and violent'. The charges were first brought against Gjert late last year — the case pertaining to Jakob was initially closed before being reinstated on appeal — and he has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
But Gjert still coaches Narve Gilje Nordas, who is the second-best all-time middle-distance Norwegian runner after Jakob, with his elder brothers Henrik and Filip third and fourth on the 1,500m and mile lists.
Nordas and fellow middle-distance runner Per Svela will still be coached by Gjert after this verdict. 'In the main, he is acquitted,' Nordas told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
'It is an incident (the conviction of assault of Ingrid) he acknowledged and apologised to me (for) three years ago.'
Ingrid, the only girl among the Ingebrigtsen siblings, quit athletics aged 15, in the autumn of 2021, just after Jakob won Olympic 1,500m gold.
Ingrid and Jakob's lawyer, Larsen, warned that Ingrid was 'very afraid' of giving evidence against her father and had a breakdown on the first day of the trial. 'She was dreading seeing Gjert,' the attorney said. Photographers were also banned from taking pictures of Ingrid arriving at court, and there was a reporting ban on specific parts of her testimony.
Advertisement
She told the court she has had three anxiety attacks — 'they bring back feelings that remind me of past experiences' — and has problems falling asleep as well as nightmares.
Ingrid said an argument had started in January 2022 because she wanted to go out, and Gjert refused to let her. She told the court: 'He (Gjert) shoved his finger right up in my face, yelling. This had happened before. I had spent so many months being pushed down and ignored — I felt completely bullied.
'So I pushed his finger away. I still don't understand how I dared to do that. But I think I was just fed up and angry.'
Gjert, Ingrid said, had a small towel in his hand because he had been exercising downstairs.
'He whipped the towel toward me,' she said. 'The first time he missed. Then he did it again, aiming for my face on purpose. This time, he hit. Right on my cheek.'
Gjert testified that he did not strike Ingrid in the face as she claimed, but used it to 'tap her finger twice in succession'. 'Nothing else was possible,' he added, saying it was 'practically difficult' for him to have hit her like that because he was holding the 'relatively small towel' in his right hand and the mark was on her right cheek.
'It quickly became clear to me that my reaction was excessive, and not at all how I intend to behave,' he recounted.
Ingrid ran out of the house to where her elder brother Henrik and his wife Liva lived nearby. Liva took a photo of her face — which was shown as evidence in court — and called Henrik, Jakob and Filip, who were all at a training camp in Sierra Nevada, Spain.
The siblings did not file a police report at the time of the assault, despite Ingrid wanting to, with Jakob testifying that 'we didn't know what to do or what was best'. They contacted child welfare as 'a cry for help,' he said, but things were complicated by him, Henrik and Filip being public figures by that stage.
Ingrid went to live with her elder brother Kristoffer for a few weeks before moving into voluntary foster care.
The prosecution has until Monday, June 30, to appeal. State prosecutor Angjerd Kvernenes said, 'We will use that time to review the verdict thoroughly, read it carefully, and familiarise ourselves with the court's reasoning.'
If they appeal, it may not go to the Court of Appeal. Instead, a committee will decide whether it proceeds or not, and, if approved, it would likely be scheduled for early 2026.
Again, there can surely be no winners.