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New York Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Gjert Ingebrigtsen interview: ‘Of course there is a winner when it comes to the verdict'
Gjert Ingebrigtsen wants to talk. The track coach was accused of abusing his double Olympic champion son Jakob and daughter Ingrid physically and psychologically over several years, claims he strenuously denied. During a high-profile trial in Norway, Jakob testified he had 'become a machine that performs when asked; an athlete who performs really well under pressure and in inhuman conditions'. Ingrid, now 18, said she 'felt trapped' in her own home and 'completely bullied' by her father. Advertisement On June 16, Gjert was convicted on one count of assault against Ingrid, but acquitted of all other abuse charges against her and Jakob, now 24. The 59-year-old was given a suspended prison sentence of 15 days and ordered to pay 10,000 NOK (£730; $970) in compensation for hitting Ingrid with a towel three years ago. 'In the big picture, for our family, we lost a lot,' says Gjert, 'each other, all the good things we had together — the family as a stronghold for both our daily lives, and also for the sport. I just want to move forward. If they want my respect, they also have to respect me.' Gjert coached three of his six sons — Jakob, Filip and Henrik — to European 1500-metre titles, a remarkable period of success that peaked with Jakob winning the biggest prize of all over the distance just before his 21st birthday in 2021: Olympic gold in Tokyo. Another Olympic title followed for Jakob over 5,000m in Paris last summer. The sons split with their father as a coach in 2022 and Ingrid gave up the sport but Gjert has continued to coach other athletes, including Jakob's rival Narve Gilje Nordas, who won the Norwegian 5,000m title on Saturday and took silver in the 1500m on Sunday. The Norwegian Athletics Association has, however, refused to accredit Gjert for competitions. A month to the day after the two-week window for either side to appeal the verdict closed, Gjert speaks for an hour over a video call. He requested to talk with The Athletic following our extensive coverage of the trial. The standout points from the conversation include Gjert saying: Gjert speaks slowly and softly, often looking around the room rather than directly at the camera, sometimes starting and restarting sentences before he finds the right words. It is a contrast to the figure often seen on the reality television series Team Ingebrigtsen, which featured Gjert, wife Tone and their seven children and first aired on Norwegian broadcaster NRK in 2016. Advertisement The legal sensitivities are complex and Gjert is speaking in English, a second language, but it is hard not to feel like his focus on semantics is slightly misplaced. He repeats the word 'clarify' in explaining why he is talking now, having pushed unsuccessfully for the trial to be behind closed doors. 'It's been a while since the trial was over and the conclusion was there,' he says. But there is also another reason for talking now. Nordas, 26, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK in March that he would leave Gjert 'if it is proven that he had been violent', but has continued to train under a man who has coached him since his teens. 'In the main, he is acquitted,' Nordas said to NRK after the trial. Gjert's desire to 'clarify' the situation has also grown because Canadian Kieran Lumb has recently joined the training group. 'I want to take some of the responsibility away from my athletes,' says Gjert. 'They get questions — 'What's my situation? What does it mean, the conclusion of the trial? How can you be a part of this when Gjert is like…?'.' He tails off. Gjert has not, however, spoken to Jakob, Filip and Henrik, although he says they all live in the same neighbourhood. 'I can almost touch my children's houses, we are all within 300 metres,' says the father. 'We see each other all the time, we meet in the grocery shop nearby, the children go to the same schools. 'I still won't contact them. I'm waiting for them to contact me if they want to (talk). It's still very tense. It's still so fresh. I will not try to normalise anything. This is going to take time.' 'I was really, really relieved, because I was acquitted,' Gjert says, before speaking, unprompted, about hitting Ingrid with a towel in January 2022. 'It was an unfortunate incident. We had a tough discussion about something domestic. Sometimes you do things that are not representative (of yourself), it's very unfortunate and I'm really sorry that happened. Advertisement 'But it's a minor thing compared to the charges that were presented to me (brought on me). Normally, I wouldn't accept the outcome.' What does 'normally' mean in this context, though? 'When you see the long list of really serious charges, ending up with this 'thing', it's not worth dragging the family through another round by appealing,' he responds. 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. On the day of the verdict, Heidi Reisvang, one of Gjert's defence lawyers, told The Athletic that they were 'very happy for the result' because he had only been convicted of 'the lowest form of physical violence in Norwegian criminal law'. Gjert argues the scale of his offence has been 'misinterpreted'. But John Christian Elden, another of Gjert's defence lawyers, said there were 'no winners' after the trial. Gjert does not share that view. 'Of course, there is a winner when it comes to the verdict and the outcome of the case,' he says. 'I'm partly responsible. I will never talk about this in a victorious way — 'I beat you and I won the case'. For me, this is over, finished. I'm really sorry for having to have this trial.' Gjert was brought to tears more than once during the testimonies, so his particularly unemotional tone warrants a direct question. Does the conviction bother him? 'Of course it bothers me,' he says. 'The incident bothers me, but not enough to do this over again (and appeal). I can live with it, I have apologised many times, both to my daughter and to the court. What's done is done. In the big picture, it's a small thing compared to the charges.' His phrasing is interesting. He uses a pattern of vague terms, such as describing the conviction as a 'thing' and repeating the phrase, 'blah, blah, blah,' in place of giving specific details. Advertisement When recounting the events of late 2023, when Jakob, Filip and Henrik first alleged abuse by Gjert in a statement in Norwegian newspaper VG, he says: 'The police started an investigation and blah, blah, blah, it became this big, big, big thing. 'They stuck to their story and I stuck to mine. The conclusion: there's no proof. Both stories were plausible and then you end up with nothing. What can I say? 'When you decide to tell an incredible story, you either say, 'Oh, OK, I made a mistake', or you stick with the story. 'When you stick to the story, you paint this terrible picture of family life, your father and everything. That's what they did. I don't think they thought it would go this far. I think they thought it would be more of an inside-sports thing.' Does he believe what Jakob and Ingrid have said, though? Jakob said in court that he has lost the joy of competing, and Ingrid said she experiences night terrors and has to take sleeping tablets. It was not permitted to take photographs of Ingrid arriving at court — which is why no images of her appear in this story — and there was a reporting ban on certain sections of her testimony. 'I have to believe that when they look at their lives, that's what they remember, what they feel about it now,' Gjert says. 'Even though I'm not sure they felt the same when…' he tails off. 'I'm not sure how to interpret the things that were said. 'Maybe I didn't have or didn't take the time to be more observant, especially about Ingrid and her needs and feelings. Maybe these are only reflections I do after being through this. '(I was) not enough of a father for her — the only girl — in the right sense because the coach took over. That's the reflection I did a long time ago. I apologised to her that I was too focused on other things, especially for Jakob and the boys.' Until last week, Gjert chose not to speak publicly on the charges. His denial of the October 2023 statement from his sons came as a statement from his lawyers, and he testified in court that he 'did not want to contribute to turning this into a bigger circus than necessary'. 'It's been really difficult to keep quiet,' he adds now. Advertisement Yet for five years, he was a central figure in the Team Ingebrigtsen series, which first put Jakob in front of the cameras at age 11. Ingrid was even younger. Gjert says that seeing extracts of the show played in court was 'the most emotional for me' — harder than listening to his children's testimonies. 'I hadn't seen the television show,' he says. 'That was so close and so real. The testimonies were what I expected — I read the statements from the police, I knew what was coming — but it was very difficult to see the television series. It's the emotions that come back to you. 'When you are parents, and especially when it comes to championships and results and everything you worked for, when you see your children reaching their goals and their dreams, that's very emotional. The television series, that was real. Reality and real things are more emotional and tense than fiction or stories.' He says he does not regret Team Ingebrigtsen, but would he do it all the same again? 'It's difficult to say because we didn't know what we said 'yes' to. It was not a commercial thing. Exposing the children in that way — I don't feel it. I don't feel that they were very exposed because it's not commercial. It's like normal life, normal things: training, eating, sleeping, travelling, competing. 'Also, the interviews are not very personal. We did what we did to document how tough it was for a family to try to work together for these common goals, the dreams.' Late in the trial, Tone, Gjert's wife of nearly 40 years and mother to the seven Ingebrigtsen siblings, demanded a closed court to testify. She was granted those 'special circumstances', the court explained, because her testimony was considered pivotal. Gjert says he did not know she wanted to 'empty the courthouse, or what she was going to say'. 'She took charge and did it her way,' he adds. 'That makes me really proud. I would maybe suggest her being in an open court, so everybody could listen to her testimony, but I never told her my opinion.' In court, Jakob said his mother was in an 'impossible situation and has no control over her own life', claiming she had seen alleged incidents of abuse and was a 'victim' herself. 'I really don't have any expectations of her,' Ingrid told the court of her mother, who did not give a statement to the police. 'But 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.' Advertisement Gjert accepts that 'it's difficult to understand that I didn't inflict on her in any way'. He says he advised Tone to seek external advice. But was he ever concerned that Tone's closed-court demands might damage her relationships with their children? 'I was never afraid of that, because I was sure she wouldn't say anything negative about the children,' he says. 'She didn't want to end up in conflict. She was very clear and objective, case-oriented.' After the trial, the Norwegian Athletics Association wanted to suspend Gjert from coaching, but the Norwegian Sports Federation, a higher governing body, rejected this. 'It's difficult to understand why this has anything to do with any federation,' Gjert says. 'They (the federation) never talked to me about this.' But while he is permitted to coach, the Norwegian Athletics Association will continue to deny him accreditation for national and global championships. 'That's a problem for my athletes. Not for me. It's not my accreditation,' he says. 'They are not punishing me. It's Narve getting punished, it's his accreditation for having a coach. Narve is a top-10 1500m athlete. 'I've been a part of major championships since 2010. I have more than 30 medals internationally. I have no use for this accreditation. I'm there for him, not for me.' Nordas ranks 18th on the global 1500m list for 2025 but is the ninth-quickest miler this year. What does Gjert think would happen, hypothetically, if Nordas trained elsewhere? 'If he changed coaches, he would have his coach with him at all times. OK, so they punish him for having me as a coach,' he says. With Jakob and Nordas now Norway's top two middle-distance runners, does Gjert feel conflicted watching his son compete against his athlete? 'The results reflect on your job as a coach, but still, family is family,' he says. 'I will always want the best for my family, but the last few years I've found some balance between my professional and private life. Advertisement 'I will love my children for other qualities than their ability to run fast. If they run or not, it doesn't matter to me. When they are there running, I have a professional attitude towards it — but still, I'm a father. 'I look forward to when we are not in this arena anymore, when we don't have this (competition). As long as we keep doing this, it will always be difficult.' Having called the past three years a 'lesson', one wonders what Gjert has learned. In 2019, he took pride in Filip calling him a 'dictator', and said in an interview with The Telegraph that 'a dictatorship is much better than the opposite'. Has he changed that approach? 'I'm still the same. It will always be like that. But maybe I'm a little bit more round around the edges. I'm getting older, more experienced. I would like to think so. 'As a coach, I will have it my way. That's the only way I know how to coach. If I cannot have it my way, there's no point being in it, because I'm not in it for me, I'm in it for the athletes. I expect the athletes to follow my guidance.' (Top image: Illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photography by Fredrik Hagen / AP Photo)
New York Times
16-06-2025
- New York Times
The Ingebrigtsen trial: ‘I became too much of a coach – the coach was not necessarily a kind man'
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.
The Guardian
16-06-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
The trial that has gripped Norway like a soap opera has ripped apart track and field's most famous family
The moment that ripped apart track and field's most successful and eccentric family came in January 2022, after the 15-year-old sister of the Tokyo Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen was grounded by her father after school. At that point, Jakob and his brothers Filip and Henrik, were all European, world or Olympic champions, having trained like professionals since before they were teenagers. They were also major TV stars in Norway thanks to the docu-series Team Ingebrigtsen, where they appeared alongside their coach and father Gjert. Gjert, whose manner could make an army drill sergeant sound touchy-feely, outlined his philosophy early in series one. 'I don't want to be an angry man, I want to be a father,' he said. 'But if being an angry man brings them their dreams I will tolerate what I am missing.' But on that day in 2022, Gjert's anger went too far. It led to him striking his daughter with a wet towel, his sons to ditch and denounce him, and to a courthouse in Sagnes, Norway where he stood trial for physically and mentally abusing Jakob and Ingrid. Amid tense scenes in court in March this year, Gjert explained what he felt had happened. 'She's really angry and says: 'I fucking don't want to be in this prison of yours any more,' while holding her index finger at me. 'I pull the towel against her finger twice in quick succession. She then says: 'What the hell are you doing, are you hitting me?' To which I reply: 'I didn't hit you.' Ingrid's testimony, though, told a different story. 'I had been so depressed and ignored for several months, I simply felt bullied,' she said. 'I pushed his finger away. He had a small towel that he had been sweating in, so it was wet. He whipped it at my face. First once without hitting. Then he did it once more, and then he hit me on the cheek.' After a month of deliberations, the court issued its 31-page verdict on Monday. And when it came to the wet-towel incident it was unequivocal. 'There is no doubt that the defendant acted intentionally.' The court noted that Ingrid had fled to her brother Henrik's home. And that Henrik's wife, Livia, had taken a photograph of a red mark across Ingrid's face. 'Ingrid's explanation is significantly strengthened by other evidence,' the court said. 'She left the house and moved out. The defendant, in turn, sent her a message the next day in which he strongly regretted the incident, emphasising that he needed help and that he wanted to see a doctor and psychologist. 'The court therefore assumes as proven beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant hit Ingrid in the face with a blow with a small and damp towel.' As a result of his actions, Gjert received a 15-day suspended sentence and was ordered to pay his daughter £744. Yet when the verdict was announced on Monday his reaction was one of 'relief', according to his attorney, Heidi Reisvang. Why? Because when it came to every other allegation against him, the prosecution was unable to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. The court accepted that Jakob and Ingrid's evidence had often been 'credible'. However it said that in many instances it was impossible to know the truth when Gjert, his wife Tone, or one brother, Martin, had one view of an incident – while Jakob, Ingrid and the other siblings had another. Jakob, for instance, had told the court that he had been punched 'many times' by his father when he was eight, after receiving a negative report about his behaviour from school. The incident was confirmed by Filip, who was said to have observed it from an adjacent room. However Martin said that his father had only grabbed Jakob and held him against the wall while he yelled. According to the ruling, memories could have been distorted by time – and antipathy. Some of the allegations, though, were dismissed by the court. It ruled that Jakob's claims to have been knocked off his scooter and kicked in the stomach by his father in front of witnesses were 'incomprehensible', suggesting that someone would have surely reacted to a little boy being attacked. It also dismissed prosecutors' claims that the Ingebrigtsen household had been 'characterised by continuous insecurity and fear of violence' between 2008 and 2018. While it acknowledged Gjert was sometimes angry, it said it was 'difficult to reconcile' the allegation with testimony from family friends, athletes and TV crews. The court also pointed to a heated 30-minute argument between Gjert and Jakob at a training camp in St Moritz in 2019, which was recorded by Henrik without his father's consent and later played in court, as evidence that Jakob was no shrinking violet. The judges described it as 'loud and rather pointless', but added: 'It must be emphasised that Jakob shows no sign of fear or submission towards the defendant. He stands his ground and retaliates against the defendant's verbal abuse.' So what might happen now? Speaking after the verdict, Reisvang held out hope that this great schism could be mended. 'As Gjert said during the trial, he wants to reconcile with his family, and he hopes that he will have a relationship with them at some point,' she said. 'That hasn't changed.' Jakob's reaction to the ruling came only via an Instagram post of a picture of his daughter, Filippa, which appeared to suggest hell might freeze over first. 'I will always be there for her if she needs a hug,' he wrote. 'I will cheer for her, whatever choice she makes (except if she steals my 911 GT3 RS). I will give her space if space is what she asks for. And I will love and respect her unconditionally (even if she steals my 911 GT3 RS)!' It was a promise that was touching and pointed. But while it spoke of looking to the future, you suspect there are scars here that will never disappear.
Telegraph
16-06-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Jakob Ingebrigtsen's father convicted of assault but avoids jail
The father of Jakob Ingebrigtsen has been convicted of assaulting his daughter but acquitted of abusing the double Olympic champion. After a seven-week trial, which included conflicting statements from multiple family members, a court in their hometown of Sandnes found that Gjert Ingebrigtsen did hit Ingrid with a wet towel but that there was reasonable doubt over accusations that he abused Jakob. Gjert, who had coached Jakob, as well as his brothers Henrik and Filip to major international success over 1500 metres and 5,000m, has been fined 10,000 krone (£744) and received a suspended 15-day jail sentence for the assault on Ingrid. The court was shown a photograph of Ingrid with a red mark on her face. Judges in the case did not find, as was alleged by Ingrid and the three brothers, that he had overseen a family environment that was characterised by fear and violence. Gjert Ingebrgtsen had denied the charges and his lawyer, John Christian Elden, said that he was 'relieved' by the court's verdict. 'This case has no winners, and today's verdict shows that all those affected have been exposed to an enormous burden that should have been avoided,' said Elden. Jakob's legal aid lawyer Mette Yvonne Larsen said that the 24-year-old Olympic, world and European champion was now 'concerned with moving on' after starting 'a new life in January 2022, when he broke with his father and broke with the regime he has experienced'. The verdict states: 'The court considers one side's version of family life and the relationship between the defendant and Jakob is not particularly more likely than the other.' They also highlighted how another brother, Martin, had spoken in defence of his father. 'The significant difference is that he describes it as a safe and good home without violence or threats, despite the fact that the defendant could be quarrelsome, loud and argumentative,' said the court. 'The court cannot disregard his explanation. His explanation is difficult to reconcile with the prosecution's claim that Jakob was subjected to violence… or abuse throughout much of his childhood.' Jakob had alleged that he was abused both physically and mentally from 2008 until 2018. The prosecutor had requested a prison sentence of more than two-and-a-half years. A total of Nkr400,000 (£29,800) in compensation was also suggested for the two siblings. Ingrid Ingebrigtsen, 19, has not lived at home since the towel incident in January 2022. The three brothers split from being coached by Gjert shortly after the incident before writing a newspaper article in 2023 which alleged that they had been subjected to physical violence. Gjert, who has always denied criminal behaviour, has continued to coach Jakob's Norway team-mates Narve Gilje Nordas and Per Svela. Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the 1500m at the Tokyo Olympics before following that up with 5,000m gold in Paris last year. He also won the 1500m and 3,000m double at both the European and World Indoor Championships earlier this year but the start of his outdoor track season has been delayed by an Achilles tendon injury.
Washington Post
16-06-2025
- Washington Post
Jakob Ingebrigtsen's father convicted of assaulting daughter and acquitted of other abuse charges
SANDNES, Norway — Gjert Ingebrigtsen, the father of Norwegian track star Jakob Ingebrigtsen, was convicted Monday of assaulting his daughter and handed a suspended prison sentence. A court acquitted Gjert of other charges including abusing Jakob, a multiple Olympic and world middle-distance champion. In a trial that started in March and has gripped Norway, Gjert, 59, was accused of an alleged years-long campaign of domestic abuse toward Jakob and younger sister, Ingrid.
