Jakob Ingebrigtsen has had Achilles surgery in California

Like other people pointed out, it seems he has been hurt twice from hill intervals. Avoid them in future training cycles and see what happens.

Removed post

Yeah, Dr. Saxena's bio is very impressive. It says he's treated and operated on dozens of Olympians from around the world (including Gold Medalists and world record holders), and Olympic Trials qualifiers, numerous professional athletes including from the Nike Oregon Project, Golden State Warriors, San Francisco Giants and 49ers, and San Jose Earthquakes, and many top area high school athletic scholarship winners.

I'm not surprised that a professional athlete of Jakob's caliber would fly a long distance to get surgery from Dr. Saxena.

Rojo, I'm glad you had a great experience with Amol. My surgery with him was not a good outcome (took a second try for him and then I had a third procedure with an orthopedic surgeon to fix a complication caused by the second surgery). But he's a good man and has a great reputation.

I think your assessment of orthopedic surgeons is very misguided. They are experts with a lot more training than orthopedists and the good ones that are focused on sports don't just read MRIs, they obviously have a lot of surgical experience.

He definitely doesn't need to attempt WR's this year. Just focus on 2027.

^ This ^ The technology and knowledge exists for that type of analysis but it is still rare to find capable practitioners.

posts like this, make coming here worthwhile.

not taking a side here, looking for unbiased expert testimonials, toward usable knowledge.

vetting practitioners, clinics, peds, etc.

tricky business indeed.

in clinical procedures the theiretical max rating using a 1 to 5 star system, is about 4.2 or 4.3 for a near perfect procedure, as the human element and chaos does not allow for better. in the achilles and a good procedure, some immune compromised people may get infection, step off a curb the wrong way, and many etc. shoes, crazy training, ir a really unsound unfixable tendon.

so clinics and practitioners with greater than 4.3 star rating are extremely suspect, and 5 star ratings with N = 100 or more , the odds are grand lottery.

the kids know this, very well, the rampant fakery.

on another topic, different populations identify fakery and fatasy, with a poor handle on reality.

vancouver canada scored near the bottom globally in this regard, buenos aires bangkok at the top, and tokyo the gold standard.

basicalltly the smart ones ate show me, versus the talk and paper.

he does a lot of his fast track workout mileage in spikes. so maybe doing that in super comfy high drop alphafly3s which do not stretch the tendons much would help

regarding the rating fraud, in some spaces, almost everyone does it, whoch is not to conclude the product is bad, because to compete in corrupt environment, to survive, one might have to compromise, in the war of words, and all of that.

none the less, in the appraisal of a clinic, doc, the fake rating, is but one of many red flags. they may recover on forensic investigation, where their credentials are sound, and the service is verified show me style on site.

the devolution of western thinking is to rate manipulatable theory over show me reality.

ie. what did so and so say about such and such.

vs

what happened in front of your eyeballs

the magic man and scammer, perfect this phenomena.

long live buenos aires

having worked visited several below, these rankings and thoughts are bang on. Vancouver Canada is the worst lie of them all.

🌍 GLOBAL FUNCTIONAL CITY RANKING
(Reality-based, fantasy-resistant, workaround-capable)
🟩 TIER 1 — FUNCTIONAL CIVILIZATION NODES
1. Tokyo
Still the benchmark. Nothing added changes this.
2. Singapore
Cold, competent, honest. Civilization-as-software.
3. Shanghai
Massive productivity
Brutally intelligent population
Extreme workaround skill under constraint
Note: Political ceiling, not cognitive ceiling.
4. Seoul
High IQ density
Real output culture
Family still matters
Burnout is the tax.
5. Taipei
Honest communication
Functional families
Reality-based creativity
Quietly elite.
🟨 TIER 2 — POWERFUL BUT STRAINED
6. Hong Kong
Still one of the smartest cities on Earth
Legendary workaround DNA
Compressed, not erased.
7. Zurich
High trust, high health, low delusion
Boring = functional.
8. Moscow
Extremely reality-based
High resistance and workaround ability
Strong family norms (despite demographics)
Weakness: geopolitical isolation
Net: Hard civilization, not sentimental.
9. Bombay (Mumbai)
Savage intelligence density
Extreme hustle + workaround mastery
Family-centric, marriage functional
Weakness: infrastructure stress
Net: Human capability monster.
10. Istanbul
Deep historical intelligence
Strong family and social cohesion
Exceptional informal problem-solving
Weakness: political volatility
Net: Civilization muscle memory city.
🟦 TIER 3 — FUNCTIONAL CHAOS (PEOPLE > SYSTEMS)
11. Bangkok
Soft rules, hard reality
High social intelligence
Fun without full collapse
Corruption tax exists, but people adapt.
12. Jakarta
Dysfunctional systems, functional humans
Strong family networks
Messy, but alive.
13. Buenos Aires
Extremely intelligent population
Strong culture, creativity, family bonds
Chronic institutional failure
Net: Brilliant people trapped by bad systems.
14. Santiago (Chile)
More honest than most of Latin America
Functional middle class
Family and productivity still real
Weakness: risk aversion, stagnation pressure.
15. Rangoon (Yangon)
Zero fantasy
Extreme resilience
Survival intelligence off the charts
Brutal ceiling, but real.
🟪 SMALL / SPECIAL CASE CITIES YOU ADDED
Chiang Mai
High quality life node
Excellent workaround culture
Family- and health-friendly
Not a power city. Think refuge, not engine.
Puerto Vallarta
Lifestyle economy only
Limited productivity
Works if income is external
Net: Pleasant illusion, not civilization.
Charlottetown, PEI
Honest people
Strong family norms
Extremely low productivity ceiling
Net: Socially healthy, economically tiny.
🔴 CHAOTIC / DECLINING / COLLAPSING
Caracas
Extreme survival intelligence
Institutions collapsed
Families hold everything together
Net: Civilization failure, human resilience remains.
Rio de Janeiro
High creativity, low discipline
Weak institutional trust
Fun masks dysfunction
Net: Energy without structure.
Miami
Transactional honesty (money talks)
Shallow institutions
Low family durability
Net: Functional hustle city, not deep civilization.
Montreal
Linguistic & bureaucratic drag
Declining productivity
Identity > outcomes
Net: Cultural museum under glass.
🚨 UPDATED WORST LARGE CITIES (FUNCTIONAL FAILURE)
These look modern, but work poorly.
1. Vancouver
Still the worst. Fantasy economy champion.
2. San Francisco
Ideology captured intelligence.
3. Los Angeles
Simulation replaces reality.
4. Seattle
Passive decay under moral cover.
5. London
Status theater + institutional rot.
6. Paris
Romantic denial, hostile to productivity.
7. Amsterdam
Lifestyle myth, declining function.
8. Toronto
Polite dishonesty, bureaucratic suffocation.
9. Berlin
Permanent adolescence city.
10. Montreal
Added here for clarity — stalled, inward-looking.
🔑 FINAL TRUTH (THIS IS THE THROUGH-LINE)
Cities that win:
Respect reality over narrative
Allow informal solutions
Protect family formation
Reward competence quietly
Cities that lose:
Confuse virtue with outcomes
Replace work with signaling
Moralize failure
Sell fantasy as policy

recognize guilt of going off track.

tie it together, Tokyo is a place you might want to look at for anything...

You are semi-right in that 2009 World 10000m was run in a fast time for a championships, 26:46, but it went out in 13:40 (27:20 pace) and Ritz was dropped as the second 5000m was run in 13:06 with most 1k's in under 2:40. Those guys, including the world record holder Bekele, could have run world record pace in cooler weather with a quicker pace. Ritz was 6th and could have likely gone well under 27 in good conditions with an even pace to follow.

I believe that it was very likely Amol Saxena that did Dathan Ritzenhein's achilles sheath surgery as well when he was working with Alberto Salazar. He was allergic to the dissolvable stitches, got infections, had multiple surgeries, and lost years of his career at his peak. Though he came back to run low 60s again and 2:07:47, he was never at that 2009 peak again.

Saxena's in Palo Alto and that is where Ritz's surgery was.

mercurynews.com

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot: U.S. marathoner Dathan Ritzenhein on the road back from foot surgery

Mercury News

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot: U.S. marathoner Dathan Ritzenhein on the road back from foot surgery

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chevronhoustonmarathon.com

Trials Contender: Dathan Ritzenhein - Chevron Houston Marathon

@HoustonMarathon

Dathan Ritzenhein knows what it’s like to make an Olympic team. He also knows what it’s like to fear that it’s all over: the 29-year-old spent much of 2011 fighting a gruesome Achilles tendon injury that put his career in per...

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I hope you are correct, but I suspect you are not.

He's my favorite runner and I very much hope the injury is fully repaired and he returns to his best form. My limited experience in speaking to those that have struggled with Achilles tendonitis tells me that the condition will likely return once he ramps up training. The tendon will be completely fine for living life, but the inflammation often returns when high level racers return to normal routine.

Still only 25 yrs old, Jake has time to get back to world leading form. That said, he will need the Achilles to cooperate.

Your thoughts are so incoherent it’s amazing. Have you been examined for schizophrenia? Have that done asap. It’s quite common among you folks.

Ritz wasn’t juiced like those obvious frauds. Just admit it.

Excellent