Gjert Ingebrigtsen interview: ‘Of course there is a winner when it comes to the verdict'

New York Times

2 days ago

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.
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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.
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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.
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'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.
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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.
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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.'
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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.
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'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)