Strong revelation from Jakob Ingebrigtsen: “I grew up with a violent and controlling father”

The distinction as the European Athlete of the Year received last Saturday for the second consecutive year came at a time of deep sensitivity for Norwegian midfielder Jakob Ingebritsen: together with his older brothers Henrik and Filip, the Olympic champion, two-time world champion and multi-continental champion accused his father and former coach, Gjert Ingebrigtsen, of exercising violent treatment during different stages of their careers.

“We grew up with a father who has been very aggressive and controlling, and who has used physical violence and threats in his education,” they revealed last Friday in a column published in the popular Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG). “We have lived with it and, in adulthood, we have moved on. Two years ago, the same aggressions and physical punishments occurred again and that was the last straw,” they described.

In addition, they explained that “the situation experienced in the family was unbearable” and recognized that they should “have stopped earlier”. However, one of the most serious confessions was expressed at the end of the publication: “The pressure we have felt has been inhumane. We ran out of energy and the joy of playing sports went away. We still feel the discomfort and fear that has been in us since childhood,” they lamented.

In response to the categorical public complaints, Gjert Ingebritsen spoke through his lawyer: “The statements they make are baseless. I never used violence against my children. I have weaknesses as a father, and I have been too much of a coach, is something that I also realized, albeit too late,” he justified. He added: “I am far from perfect as a father and husband, but I am not violent.”

The dual role broke down in early 2022, a handful of months after Jakob’s Olympic title in the 1500m in Tokyo 2021, at which point Gjert stopped being the coach without convincing explanations. Since then, he cut off all relations with his three children and prepares Narve Gilje Nordas, a compatriot and Jakob’s main vernacular rival. During the 2022 World Cup in Budapest, the first symptom of a broken bond emerged: Jakob managed to get his father to leave the Norwegian concentration.

The uncovered case has special repercussions in the land of the Ingebrigtsen. Between 2016 and 2021, the intimacy of the plan to train successful runners was put at the service of Norwegian society in Team Ingebrigtsen, the documentary series in which, apparently, violence was not one of the everyday methods used by the father of seven children.

The family leader clung to family exposure as a defense strategy: “Our family lived in the public spotlight for many years and we chose to let the public into our lives (...) That violence has occurred in this public family life is unthinkable. The Norwegian people saw our lives, for better or for worse,” he argued.

The three brothers decided to bring the abuse to light almost two years after the breakup because “it was not possible to manage the situation in an orderly manner” and because “the consequences were so great that we felt a responsibility to solve it”. At the moment, they chose not to accentuate their accusations on their social networks and pointed out that they are only looking for “peace”.