Ingrid Ingebrigtsen, Jakob's sister, tells court their father Gjert slapped her, whipped her with a towel

New York Times

27-03-2025

Ingrid Ingebrigtsen, sister of Olympic gold medallist Jakob, told a court on Thursday that their father allegedly slapped her and whipped her with a towel.
Before Ingrid, 19, testified at the court in her hometown of Sandnes, Norway, her legal counsel, Mette Yvonne Larsen, made a plea: 'She is very nervous. She had a breakdown yesterday and is very afraid. First and foremost, she was dreading seeing Gjert.'
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Ingrid was testifying against her father, Gjert Ingebrigtsen, on charges of abuse in close relationships against her and older brother Jakob.
The prosecution requested a closed court for Ingrid's testimony. This was also requested by the defence for Gjert, however that claim was rejected.
Gjert denies all allegations and the portrayal of events, and pled not guilty. He denies ever having been violent.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of six years, while a restraining order could also be issued and separate punishment from the Norwegian Athletics Federation may be brought if he is found guilty.
Gjert coached the trio of Ingrid's older brothers who are professional middle-distance runners: Henrik, Filip and Jakob, all of whom have won European 1,500m titles, and Jakob won Olympic gold over that distance at the delayed 2021 Tokyo Games. They split with Gjert as coach in early 2022 after he was alleged to have hit Ingrid with a towel.
Prosecutor Ellen Gimre led the questioning of Ingrid, the second-youngest and the only girl of seven siblings.
Gimre asked her to explain the background of January 5, 2022, the day Gjert allegedly hit Ingrid with a towel.
Ingrid told the court she had planned to meet friends and 'found it scary to even ask for permission'. After she went downstairs to tell Gjert she was leaving, 'I was simply told that it wasn't an option. I asked why, but there was no reason.
'By then, I had felt trapped in my own home for so long, and so much time had passed, so I didn't accept the rejection. I pushed a little, and said, 'Why am I not allowed?'
'Then he shoved his finger in my face, yelling. This had happened before, but since I had spent so many months being pushed down and ignored, I felt completely bullied. I pushed his finger away. I still don't understand how I dared to do that.
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'He had a small, wet towel in his hand. He whipped the towel toward me. The first time he missed, then he did it again, aiming for my face, and he hit right on my cheek.'
Ingrid said she froze, before Gjert 'quickly realized that he had done something wrong. He looked very stressed,' starting to pace up and down the hallway. It was then that she ran to the house of older brother Henrik and his wife Liva, who lived close by.
'I ran there, sobbing, and told Liva in shock what had happened. Then he (Gjert) called me, telling me to come home immediately, and if I didn't, he would come and get me. Liva locked the door, took a picture of my face and called Henrik, who was away at a training camp with Filip and Jakob'.
Gjert, Ingrid said, came to the house and tried to open the door. Henrik had called the eldest brother, Kristoffer, who lives one street over, and he arrived with a baseball bat to confront their father.
Liva also called Tone, the mother of the seven Ingebrigtsen siblings. 'She came right away (from work),' Ingrid recalled. 'She said, 'That's enough. Gjert is sick and needs help.' Mom went to Gjert, saying she had to look after him, that she was afraid of what he might do.'
Ingrid said Gjert texted her the following day, 'but he only apologized for raising his voice — not for what actually happened'.
From then, Ingrid stayed with Kristoffer and moved into voluntary foster care in March 2022, with her old homeroom teacher from middle school. She wanted to report Gjert to the police immediately, 'but none of my other siblings wanted to,' she explained.
'They shut it down pretty quickly at the start. They found it difficult'. It is why 20 months elapsed from the alleged abuse and the October 2023 statement from Jakob, Henrik and Filip — published in Norwegian newspaper VG — where they first spoke publicly of Gjert's controlling nature and alleged abuse.
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Ingrid said foster care was 'very difficult and not a situation I willingly wanted to be in. I have done everything I can to avoid ending up back home'.
She felt 'in a battle against child welfare services. I don't feel like I was treated well or believed by them.' They told her they could not help bring charges against Gjert as they perceived evidence to be insufficient. Gjert and Tone kept her passport and 'used it against me, deliberately so I couldn't travel with my foster family,' she said.
While she was temporarily living with Kristoffer, his wife Christina suggested that Ingrid write down the key points of Gjert allegedly abusing her. Ingrid described Kristoffer as 'a bit angry and upset that he hadn't known what was going on,' with her filling an A4 page.
More than once she was pushed into an ice-cold shower and held under the water to 'wake her up'.
Gjert's 'crazy eyes,' is another thing Ingrid wrote down. 'That was when he got really angry and exploded — it seemed like everything went black for him,' she said. Ingrid used 'crazy eyes' to describe an incident, when still living at home, where she was sick and not training but was still made to get up early to eat breakfast with her siblings.
'I asked if I could sleep longer. The answer was that it wasn't an option. I kept asking because I didn't understand why.' She slammed the sliding door to her parents' bedroom harder than she anticipated, and says Gjert retaliated. He 'placed both hands on my chest and pushed me down,' Ingrid told court.
She ran off in fear. 'My heart sank immediately, and I quickly ran up the stairs to my room. I only made it halfway when he opened the sliding door and calmly said, 'Now you come here.'
'I realized I had done something wrong. So I went over, and then he stood with his finger in my face again and shouted at me.
'I remember trying to say, 'But it wasn't on purpose,''and I think he took that as me talking back. Then I was shoved hard to the ground.' As she ran off, crying, she remembers: 'Mom asking while this was happening, ''Gjert, what are you doing?''
The first instance of alleged abuse against Ingrid was from 2019, when Gjert was driving her to Stavanger (16km/10miles north of the Ingebrigtsen hometown of Sandnes) for a run. She had forgotten her heart-rate monitor. Gjert, Ingrid says, called her 'useless' and 'dumb', and after she retorted with 'shut up', he slapped her in the face.
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Gimre finished her questioning by asking Ingrid what the worst part of her childhood was. 'I wouldn't say it's the violence. It's bad, but I don't think it can compare to the mental toll over many years.
'The fear you live with in your own home. The absolute worst of all is how my mother has chosen to stand in this situation.' Tone is one of over 30 witnesses who will be called to testify across the next five weeks. 'If she doesn't choose to tell the truth, or support me and believe me, I won't have people like that in my life,' Ingrid said.
She quit athletics aged 15, in the autumn of 2021, which was just after Jakob won Olympic 1,500m gold.
'Until I moved out (early 2022), it was a really difficult period for me. During that time, he (Gjert) would completely ignore me,' she testified. 'He said he didn't see me as his daughter anymore, that I wasn't worthy of it. He said I was ruining the family'.
Ingrid said quitting 'was something I had to keep secret. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone because that would be destructive. He (Gjert) said it was embarrassing, that I had stood in front of all of Norway on the TV series and lied, saying I wanted to be great.'
She, like older brother Kristoffer, experiences night terrors. 'I've dreamed that Gjert was running after me, trying to get me, and that the stands were full of people just watching,' she said, and has been prescribed melatonin.
Since Gjert allegedly hit her at the start of 2022, Ingrid has had three anxiety attacks, over 50 hours of therapy and 'also developed severe migraines, which I still struggle with. My doctor and I have concluded that it's caused by stress'.
With her testimony complete, the case is adjourned until Monday, where Gjert will give his evidence over three days.
The trial continues.
(Top photo of Jakob Ingebrigtsen: Lise Aserud/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)