Jakob Ingebrigtsen's father says he was ‘not kind' as a coach and claims court documents were leaked to media

New York Times

02-04-2025

Gjert Ingebrigtsen, the father and former coach of Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, says he 'was not necessarily a kind man' as a coach and claimed that court documents were leaked to the media ahead of his appearance in court.
On Wednesday, the 59-year-old finished three days of testimony for charges of abuse in close relationships against two of his seven children. Gjert was indicted on abuse charges against middle child Jakob and his younger sister, Ingrid, and was alleged to have hit the latter with a towel in early 2022.
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He denied all allegations and pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial, which is taking place in Sandnes, Norway, the birthplace of the seven Ingebrigtsen siblings. If found guilty, the maximum prison sentence is six years, a restraining order may be implemented, and the Norwegian Athletics Federation can bring a separate punishment.
The Athletic reported from the trial earlier this week that Gjert had no recollection of the events surrounding the instances of abuse that Jakob alleged.
On three instances regarding Ingrid, he recalled the incident but disagreed with the portrayal of events. This included him pushing his daughter after she slammed a door during a disagreement — Gjert says 'she had to take a step back to regain balance', while Ingrid says she was pushed to the floor.
Gjert denied Ingrid's assertion last week that he shouted at her and 'threw his hand in my face' after she had forgotten her heart-rate monitor. He insisted it was 'a discussion or an argument about a clear and defined responsibility (for bringing the monitor). What that (his) reaction consisted of is hard to say, but it was definitely not a hit'.
Of the towel incident in 2022, he said he only hit Ingrid's finger, not her face as she alleges. The prosecution pointed out that in the police interrogation, Gjert's story changed between the number of times the towel hit her (between once and twice) and if he hit her at all (from not hitting her to the finger).
That incident caused Jakob, as well as elder brothers Henrik and Filip — professional middle-distance runners themselves, with all three once the European 1,500m champion — to split with Gjert as their coach.
Gjert elaborated that the popularity of the family — through sporting success and the Team Ingebrigtsen behind-the-scenes docuseries, which ran from 2016 to 2021 and was broadcast on national Norwegian television — meant he was not, in his opinion, given the necessary presumption of innocence.
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He claimed to be able to document 'deliberate leaks' of court documents and interrogations from the police and the prosecution to the media. Gjert also said it was 'never an option' for the Norwegian Athletics Federation to 'remain neutral' given the importance of Jakob's success. Norway are relatively unique in being a nation with more winter than summer Olympic medals.
In the delayed 2021 Tokyo Games, Jakob was the first Norwegian Olympic champion over 1,500m and also the first from his country to win 5,000m gold, which he achieved last summer in Paris. Gjert says the pressure put on Jakob to win in 2021 diffused onto him. 'He (Jakob) decided that if he doesn't win the Olympics, his life is pretty much a failure. He makes sure to remind me of that all the time,' Gjert testified.
Gjert spoke of a breakdown after he won 1,500m gold, after which Jakob had a 'changed attitude' and they began to drift apart, with 'conflict' starting between the teenager and older brother Henrik.
Gjert also testified about an issue at the 2023 Bislett Games, the most prestigious track and field event that is held in Norway, when an athlete he was still coaching, middle-distance runner Narve Gilje Nordas, had ran a breakthrough race five days prior and wanted to be in the stacked 1,500m event in Oslo. Gjert felt that efforts to exclude Nordas from the race were because of the fractured relationship between him and Jakob, whom he had split from for more than a year at that point.
'They had to let him in because he was running too fast to ignore,' Gjert recalled, adding that Jakob was 'very obviously against Narve running the 1,500m… a backroom deal was made, a large sum of money to race a different distance, but he declined'.
Jakob, who won that race in a 3:27.95 European record (Nordas finished ninth but ran a PB), denied those claims in court.
Three months later, when Jakob was marrying childhood sweetheart Elisabeth, Gjert says he was not invited because of the events surrounding the Bislett Games — which Jakob also denied, saying Gjert was never invited, whereas his father claims he had an invite on the condition he cut ties with Nordas.
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Gjert also claimed that Jakob threatened Tone, his mother and Gjert's wife, that she had to divorce him or she would be estranged from her children and grandchildren.
In October 2023, Jakob, Filip and Henrik released their statement as an op-ed in Norwegian newspaper VG, where they alleged abuse from Gjert. He called it a 'bomb' and that 'we had never heard anything remotely resembling what was written in that article'. He chose not to speak publicly on the charges at any point — Gjert's denial of the October 2023 allegations came in a statement from his lawyers — because he 'did not want to contribute to turning this into a bigger circus than necessary'.
Gjert accepts that he became too invested as their coach and was not enough of a father, particularly as 'the coach was not necessarily a kind man. The way I communicated in my job as a coach was not always appropriate, (it) eventually became extreme (and) spread into our lives, which should have been a different arena'.
At the start of the three days of testimony, in his 'free statement', he cited his childhood experiences — being raised in the north of the country where communication is more 'direct', being abused himself aged 10, and without male role models when his dad died aged four — as explanations for his shortcomings.
In 2020, a point when he says he was suicidal, Gjert said that he tipped too far and 'built my world around the role of a coach rather than the role of a father. That was foolish, but I couldn't stop myself, and no one else stopped it either'.
He told the court that it was then that Henrik moved back in and conflict between the two became more frequent: 'I should have stopped it. Instead, I quit my job, sold off things, and thought I would remain in this role for the rest of my life, or at least for a long time.'
Gjert estimated that he and wife Tone spent 15 million Norwegian kroner (£1.1m; $1.4m) on their children's athletics careers and that the financial fallout from the past two years has been significant. Tone sold her hair salons in 2022, one year after they 'took on enormous financial commitments by investing in our existing home and purchasing a vacation house in Spain,' Gjert told the court. He says they have had to sell off assets, with their income 'reduced by 80 per cent. It is difficult to say how long this will remain viable'.
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On Thursday, eldest child Kristoffer will testify. He also brought abuse charges against Gjert, which were investigated by police but dropped as they were time-barred. Kristoffer is the first of more than 30 witnesses — including Tone, Nordas, and other siblings — who will take the stand between now and mid-May when the trial is set to conclude.