Jakob Ingebritsen update - on track, but needs time

He was last healthy and 100% fit was 2024-25 indoor. He smashed the WRs in the 1500 and mile. How is it obvious his peak years are over?

Jakob’s achilles heel is that his achilles tendons are 40 years old, already. It’s quite a heel of the achilles, I must say

On his latest instagram post he said "I am jogging quite a lot right now". Good to hear!

Yes here, and in line with what the thread starter is pointing to. He’s getting back into shape, and we’ll hope for the best when he adds intensity in the form of double Ts: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DW_JkNeiP9x/?igsh=MWZkNzlkem1lMDFyeA==

All good points. The most concerning comparison to draw is that his brothers who do essentially the same training went from being medal contenders (and medalists) to complete nonfactors after their injury cycles around his age. And Jakob started training at that level even younger to my knowledge. Hope I’m wrong, but that doesn’t look great to me

My "There HAVE NOT been ANY setbacks in training" announcement is sure causing a lot of questions easily answered by reading the announcement.

Because your statement is idiotic. How about being more specific? "His peak years are over"? Which "peak years" are you referring to? 1500m, Mile, 3000m, 5000m, 10,000m, all of them? Making a random comment with no context shows your lack of knowledge. Oh, and don't reply with "he's too old and slow for the 1500m/mile", that's lame and worn out, and easy to say. Are you referring to the 5,000m and 10,000m? If so, please give us your expert analysis.

Yeah I don't actually disagree with you.

I don't think people understand the concept of what "peak years" are. You can still be awesome outside your peak years - El G was, he was so good he won a 15-5 double outside he peak years (which were 1998-2001).

Jakobs career peak years may well be over. He won an Olympic title in 3.28.3 in 2021. He ran 3.27.1 in 2023 then 3.26.7 and 7.17.5 in 2024. 2025 would have been still in that window but he lost it to injury. 2026 logically might have the last great year we had but it now looks like the best we might have is a Euro champs comeback (because not sure if he'd qualify for the "ultimate championship" or whatever it's called.

There is a good chance that with his talent he can come back and be relevant again, but I think people that are expecting a comeback and with a few races he's scaring WR's are just wishfully thinking. It doesn't work like this - never has and never will.

Hey I respect you commenting so don't take as an attack here.

But "peak" years? We've seen them with almost every great runner in history. There is invariably a 3-4 year period where they can sustain the health, fitness and motivation to be at global dominance/WR level. You can go back as far as Ovett, Coe, Kipketer, Morceli, El G, Geb, Kenny B, Rudisha - they all have this.

And again to reiterate, it doesn't mean they can't win or be great either side of their peaks. Rudisha in 2016 was not capable of running under 1.41/in the low 1.41's but was still good enough to win an Olympics. El G in 2004 was not in 3.26 low shape anymore but was good enough to win an Olympic 5/10. Morceli was past his best in 1996, had some luck and had just enough form to win Atlanta then dropped very quickly off, Bekele in '08 was not a 12.37 guy - still did his double.

The other alternative is what, that the athletes at this level just get incrementally better until the day they want to retire? Why would they ever retire then?

The question is when you believe Jakob really started hitting the period of his career when he was going to be able to sustain the highest level of his fitness and talent. If you think it was 2023 then the historical reality is that 2025 and 2026 were the back end of his absolute best. And I don't personally buy that an injury just "delays" or puts off the years - it's a physical and mental toll to recover from these things and they aren't just write-offs.

But just an opinion and maybe he will come back and break the 5000m record in 2027 (as an example) and I'll be completely wrong, but we will constantly learning won't we?

The down votes are because you either have the memory of a sieve or the research skills and knowledge of athletics of a 3yr old. It was only just over a year ago that he ran the indoor mile WR of 3:45.14. Also just look at Josh Kerr. Aiming to break the mile WR at age 28, almost 29. My god. What is he thinking?!

Carlos Lopes.

How do you know that? Risk of injury is always there when training for running.

He seems to have accomplished quite a bit for someone is continually injured

Glad he's running again, but he's not going to compete in 2026, enough of that hype.