Jakob goes from indoor worlds to a Norwegian courtroom where his testimony may send his dad to prison.

Jacob is soft . He wouldn’t last 2 weeks with a dance mom or a USA gymnast camp ….. now THATs abuse!

I was reading a recap of Thursday's testimony. It included this but I honestl have no idea if this was text was presented by the defense or by the prosecution. Anyone know? I can see both sides claiming this helps them. I assume it came from the prosecution as it kind of implies the towel incident is true but it also works for the defense as it shows him to care about his daughter if what the Norwegian guy told me - the key thing is to look for emotional abuse.

theguardian.com

Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s father forced daughter to run with breathing problems, court told

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/seaningle

The father of double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen forced his daughter to keep running even though she was struggling to breathe, a court has heard

Link:www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/mar/27/...

I think the defense got that in, probably trying to hope to bring forth the notion there was no physicality and Gjert was empathetic.

Of course at this point, I’m not sure a jury would really believe Gjert would apologize for yelling.

You don't really know that. Does it show that he care about his daughter or does it show that he care about the consequences if she tells someone about it? The promise is childish and unrealistic.

The evidence presented so far stacks up in Gjert's favor.

There's a video of him getting into an argument with the sons but not getting physical.

A text message of him that shows he was contrite about yelling at Ingrid, but does NOT have any mention of him hitting her.

Under cross-examination, Ingrid was shown a series of text messages between her and her father in 2021, which she agreed showed that she had never asked for a day off from training before she quit running.

When questioned, Jakob admitted that he had not seen his father do ­anything physical to his older ­brothers Henrik and Filip – and that when he moved out of the family home at 18 to be with his now‑wife, Elisabeth, he still lived just 300 metres from his father.

And remember Henrik and Filip moving back into their parents' house after Henrik lost his sponsorship money? Have they forgotten that?

Jakob said this when asked why he didn't move farther away from his parents when he turned 18 and had the chance: “That was as far as I dared to go, because I felt I definitely needed my parents’ consent, even though I was of legal age,” Jakob said. “I was afraid that the defendant would ­sabotage my life. He had a lot of ­control over finances, training and things that meant a lot to me.”

Unintentionally, he revealed what I have previously suspected to be a major motivator to separate from Gjert once he got a big financial windfall from winning the Olympics: $$$

this is a bit balancing...

you're dealing with a covert / grand narcissist here

where power and manipulation if the name of their game, their juice and reason to exist

they actually enjoy tormenting people and find ways to do it, in this sick condition

the money ties into the control, manipulation

I honestly can't tell if you're talking about Gjert or Jakob.

We don’t know what has happened.

However, the timeline sketched in this article is interesting ().

nrk.no

Ingebrigtsen-saken: En kamp om troverdighet

Erlend Frafjord / Journalist

Jakob Ingebrigtsen mener han har levd med vold og frykt, men i retten vil flere alternative forklaringer på familiekonflikten bli tema.

Link:www.nrk.no/rogaland/ingebrigtsen-saken...

This is presumably a narrative promoted by the defence but it suggests the family was not fully splintered until summer 2023, around the same time as Narve’s breakthrough.

The article by the brothers which also started the police investigation came in October 2023 in response to a lot of negative press Henrik was getting in Norway about his treatment of Narve.

I’m not an apologist for abuse but I also don’t trust Henrik or the brothers as reliable narrators. Something about their stories doesn’t ring true to me and it seems like there is some revisionist history going on.

It appears that Henrik has been secretly taping and filming Gjert on several occasions so I’m curious to hear the content of these taped conversations.

Hope Gjert at least gets a fair trial. Court of public opinion seems to have already determined he’s guilty.

I don't quite follow where you are going with the timeline?

Maybe more importantly around the same time Gjert was physical against their younger sister..?

The alleged towel incident is claimed to have happened in January 2022. The article says:

But family members are said to have continued a close relationship with Gjert and Tone Ingebrigtsen as late as the summer of 2023, a year and a half after Henrik was with his parents and took up the confrontational conversations.

This will become part of the evidence during the trial.

Martin Ingebrigtsen, another of Gjert's sons, described the relationship in a column that he published the day after the brothers' post :

" I must honestly admit that I find it difficult to see the great fear, when others in the family constantly visit and have recently been on vacation with Gjert. Most people probably wouldn't do it with an abusive person, or build their house within walking distance of the family home if the fear is that great... I have NEVER feared Dad that way ," he wrote.

I would also remind you that if Gjert is found guilty it's possible that NRK could be in hot water for a decade of glorifying him on television when they were supposedly tipped off that bad things were happening in the family as early as 2014.

This section of the article matches my suspicions that money was a big reason Jakob parted with his father soon after winning the Olympics.

Economic conflict
When Henrik and Filip performed at a high European level, family income was relatively low.
Significantly, the local café chain Lura Turistheim in Sandnes became an important sponsor in 2016, four years after Henrik's European Championship gold medal in the 1500 meters, and the same year as Filip's European Championship at the same distance.

The family's total income only skyrocketed from 2018. At this time, Jakob began winning international championships, and he got his first lucrative deal with equipment giant Nike.

Part of the ever-increasing income would go towards financing the older brothers who were not as successful on the athletics track as before.

Then there would have been no room for a father who wanted his share of the pie.

In September 2022, the sons bought their father out of the company. During the trial, it will be a theme that the sons did not want their father to make money from them, and that this became a source of conflict.

Thank you for sharing this article. It's helpful to remember the timeline of events, and this article is a must-read for anyone who hasn't already made up their mind about the case. Here is what the article says about Narve.

Conflict around Narve
The trial will also include the fact that Gjert Ingebrigtsen continued to coach Narve Gilje Nordås after the sons no longer wanted their father as coach.

This became a source of a high level of conflict, which eventually also reached the media when Henrik Ingebrigtsen, during a training camp in Spain in January 2023, allegedly refused to sit at the same dining table with Narve Gilje Nordås.

During the Bislett Games, in June 2023, Narve ran for the first time under 3 minutes and 30 seconds in the prestigious 1500 meter event.

Only Jakob Ingebrigtsen has run faster in 1500 meters as a Norwegian, while Henrik and Filip never managed to break the 3.30 mark.

In August of that year, during the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Jakob Ingebrigtsen failed to take gold as the big favorite.

Moreover, Narve Gilje Nordås was about to snatch the silver medal from Jakob at the finish line.

The atmosphere between the two camps was anything but cordial .

The Ingebrigtsen brothers had thought that Narve could have joined them, instead of choosing Gjert as coach. Narve knew some of the background to their break with their father.

Off the quote alone. Send him

I’m not sure if the NRK series glorified Gjert, many times my impression was they gave him a fool edit, showing him being extremely risk averse and getting stressed out or going for long walks while the boys taunted and teased him, in the edit sometimes they would play clinky clunky music which in my eyes characterises a fool edit on so-called reality tv.

Earlier on in the conflict, prior to the boys’ VG article, various little leaks seemed to be portraying the conflict as a conflict between Gjert and Henrik. Henrik has shown at other times he is not a truthful person, and adept at manipulating, the whole thing with krystall syke and not saying anything to the athletics federation but then going on live TV right after his 5000m race at Europeans and going on and on about how troubled his preparation had been, even though he knew there had been a selection controversy.

After the VG article came out in October 2023 their PR guy made a comment that it was good that the boys would now get some sympathy. I also find it telling that in his testimony Jakob distanced himself from the writing of the VG article (I’ve been writing VG but not sure now if it was in VG, but the kronikk) saying he didn’t have much to do with that, which to me supports the idea that this was something cooked up between Henrik and this PR guy.

Obviously I realise that this is all gossip and conjecture and even Gjert has said that Jakob & his sister’s testimony are based on their own views of their realities- I won’t write her name because it’s been reported that she wants to be anonymous and she’s been described as sister and daughter in recent press in Norway.

All I’m saying is that I do not see this as black and white open and shut case and not name calling Gjert because I can also see a version where this was a conflict mainly between Gjert and Henrik which escalated. Henrik has positioned himself as the supportive brother, which at first glance seems admirable but also comes with financial benefits. Fillip has distanced himself more, both geographically from Henrik & Gjert and also in terms of financial independence, securing a coaching/ mentoring role within the National athletics federation.

Curious to hear more from the defence, the various tapes & videos Henrik has made and also to hear more from Narve. Another thing to bear in mind is that what’s being reported from the trial is not everything, the press are under a sort of ‘be careful’ policy so it’s difficult to tell if the full evidence benefits the prosecution more (that’s the insinuation) or the defence.

Growing up under such conditions is devastating. In a legal system, there may not be enough evidence to convict the accused, but that doesn’t make the act any less destructive.

I found this quite fitting post by Inga Marthe Torkildsen on Facebook:

“Decades ago, a groundbreaking statement was formulated by some of the world’s leading experts in child psychiatry.

It goes like this:
*Children attach to their parents no matter how they are treated. They must, in order to survive* (Bowlby and Killén).

What does this mean?

It means children will do everything they can to survive in their relationship with their parents (or other caregivers).

👉 They will adapt over time—even to what harms them.*
👉 They will submit*—to avoid scolding or to avoid burdening a family already stretched thin. Some may try their hardest to become invisible.
👉 If it gets bad enough, children may even "disappear" from their own bodies.* All you see is a distant gaze, a physical shell, but no one is "home" (dissociation).
👉 Some will fight back*, often starting in adolescence after years of submission.
👉 Some will strive to be "perfect"*—hoping that one day, they *must* be accepted, seen, or perhaps *not* seen. If they’re just good enough, maybe they’ll avoid the questions that could shatter the facade.

These are just a few of the many survival strategies of children, and this is far from new knowledge.

Abid Raja writes in his poignant and painful book *My Shame*:

*"Parents should not own their children, should not burden them with guilt and shame (...). Guilt and shame cover the entire brain and heart. I carried endless guilt for everything I couldn’t manage, everything I couldn’t break free from."*

Why didn’t you just leave?
Why didn’t you report it?

We ask and ask, without thinking further, without even reflecting on what it means to be a child. What it means to feel unsafe—to be afraid—in your own home.
When children are constantly scolded, controlled, ridiculed, or threatened, their sense of self crumbles. They lack the foundational security they need to face life.
In fact, chronic stress and insecurity can alter physiological processes and the immune system, leading to lifelong consequences.
A young boy once explained to me how yelling and humiliation feel. He said it was worse than being hit—and he likely knew the difference:
*"Words stick in your heart, you know,"* he said.
And I say—no, I *shout* it, in caps lock:
**CHILDREN ARE AT THE MERCY OF ADULTS!

❤️ Can we truly grasp what that means? Can we listen more to the children? ❤️”

wouldn't be too surprising if there is a lot of manipulation going on between big brother and little brother.

what does Henrik's life look like without Jakob? probably not even running anymore. Seems to me he is basically living as a support system and sometimes training partner to Jakob. Which surely has value. Especially since Jakob is self-coached.

Maybe, I can at least see attempts at manipulation, but another little nugget from Jakob’s testimony was that he said the only person he trusts 100% is his wife Elisabeth.

So maybe his sense of self is intact enough to be able to advocate for himself? If so, Henrik will stay in favour as long as he can make himself useful and give Jakob what he wants / needs.

Seems like Henrik might be out of favour with the Norwegian athletics federation after the Euros debacle because now it seems to always be Fillip following up Jakob when competing for Norway. Which makes sense as I understand he’s employed in some capacity as a coaching consultant or similar.