Olympic champion whose father made him a perfect athlete but at a huge cost

Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who runs in Turkey today, faces parent and ex-coach in court over abuse claim, writes Jack Rathborn

- Jack Rathborn

Jakob Ingebrigtsen grasps a long tube while running on a treadmill and performing a VO2 max fitness test in a laboratory. Nothing unusual about that for one of the world’s greatest runners discovering the outer limits of his potential. Except this was the Norwegian aged just 11, running in excess of 120km (75 miles) per week, during the first season of Team Ingebrigtsen, the reality series surrounding his family, which aired from 2016 to 2021. The show includes brothers and fellow professional runners Henrik and Filip, and his father and former coach, Gjert.

It provides extraordinary access to one of the most fascinating experiments in elite sport, one that has popularised a training method and revolutionised middle and long-distance running. Gjert, following the successful careers of Henrik and Filip, devised a model to shape Jakob into the perfect 1,500m runner. His father’s vision has proven controversial, given the strain caused before and during puberty.

“I first thought about [becoming a professional runner] when I was eight years old,” Ingebrigtsen said, having joined his brothers for intense professional workouts at 13 years old. Such intense measures from his father to encourage rapid progress were constant, leading to him becoming the youngest person to ver break four minutes in the mile at 16.

And despite adversity on the track in recent years, with Britons Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr claiming famous scalps at World Championships, Ingebrigtsen has ensured that method, known as double threshold training, has proven a phenomenon, landing the 24-year-old two Olympic gold medals in Tokyo and Paris.