Gjert Ingebrgitsen speaks to the NY Times: "What’s done is done..As a coach, I will have it my way. That’s the only way I know."

Rojo, what are your thoughts on Gjert? It’s interesting here he seems to express regret about him and Ingrid’s relationship but not his sons who have also accused him of emotional abuse. He also seems to take the stance of “I’m sorry they see it that way” which doesn’t really show, at least to me, that he’s that remorseful.

His "having it his way" doesn't seem to apply only to coaching. This is a personality who cannot be differed with.

Just like you then?

Yikes. I honestly have given Gjert the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe his sons were a bit soft and dramatic and couldn’t see what he did for them.

But the last part about his coaching style shows the extreme control this guy needs. No way does it stop at coaching. Seems to have no wiggle room. I’ve always felt he seems reasonable, articulate and self-aware but seems to have a huge blind spot when it comes to the control he feels he needs.

That sound like someone describing a self-absorbed psychotic who posts on this board using the moniker “Armstronglivs”.

this fellow is a narcissist.

study that strange creepy condition

you will benefit

in family, the only choice is to set boundaries and stay away

so the court case is a success

All-in-all, this is an all-too-often case I've seen over and over again with older family members coaching younger family members. In most cases I've seen, it eventually ends up in hard feelings. I've seen fathers mistreating their children that I wanted to punch out on the spot for their abusiveness. Even without the power dynamic of parent-child relationship, too many kids participate in sports under the pressure of family expectations. When I coached, I was always leary of over-involved parents. I had a family member myself that was a drone-mom that hovered over her son at every meet, even though she didn't coach him. He left the sport after his sophomore year of HS, and has a distant relationship with his family to this day.

This case is no different.

They are a made-for-tv family. Going to court was a joke.

I think the difference is Gjert didn't push his kids into running. They had to first say they wanted to be runners, and then he would agree to coach them. I remember that was an ongoing storyline with Ingrid on the tv show. Gjert was very reluctant to coach her, but she kept insisting. The show also aired a conversation between Gjert and Jakob when he was younger and Gjert asked him if he's really sure he wants to be a serious runner and make all the necessary sacrifices, and Jakob said yes. Once Gjert agreed to coach them, the kids had to agree to do everything his way, but it was always their choice if they wanted to run or not.

From what he said there, the above comments are spot on. He has a narcissistic/dictator personality, believes he should be in charge and he knows best in every instance. At least when it comes to coaching his kids. Obviously he did know something about training them, but it does sound like a bad way to grow up. So much so that they wanted to GTFO.

There is no way this guy would ever dope his sons.

Agree totally. Also, one of the sons didnt want to pursue running n gjert didnt push him into it. So its a big difference.

I think the kids are spoilt. Without gjert they would have been nowhere (in running). He built the "training recipe" that took them to the top.

You cant have it all. Some parents engage too much n some not at all or even run away. Their is no perfect parent.

I think the boys will realize once their career is over when they hit 35-40...

I hope its not too late by then...

But given that they were kids, they weren't really deciding on anything. Kids don't have the capacity to make life-altering decisions. They will defer to their parents if confronted with a decision beyond them, whether consciously or not. Young Jakob obviously saw his older brothers running (and likely all the time and attention that Gjert spent on them) and thought, "I want that too." Generously, that's the extent of young Jakob's role in that decision. The decision to make the rest of Jakob's life about running was, as Jakob's parent, Gjert's.

Let me get this right... He requested the interview, just to double down on being a dictatorial narcissist. I hope his daughter finds peace, and I hope a man never lays another finger on her again..

im not a world record holder or world champion, but i would do anything for my sister. Step one would be cutting off dad completely...

The Ingebrigtsens are a weird, delusional bunch.

He didn’t write the “training recipe”- Marius Bakken did; and Gjert has claimed it as his own.

Yes, that is a good point and I think it is the genesis of the family conflict. If I were to diagram it, it would go like this... kid says they want to run and be coached by Gjert before they truly understand what it's like to train seriously ---> Gjert has the conversation with them where he agrees to coach them under the condition that they do everything his way ---> kid agrees and they begin ---> kid becomes a teenager and wants to do normal teenage things like partying, dating, and going on holidays ---> Gjert disapproves because he thinks it will harm their training ---> conflict and resentment ensues.

Many people view Gjert as a dictator. I view him as the ultimate accountability partner. His kids said they wanted to run and they wanted to be the best in the world at it, and he held them accountable by being strict with what they could do, where they could go, and what they could eat. In his mind, he thought he was doing what was best for them to help them realize their dreams. The unintended consequence is they grew to resent him because they missed out on a normal teenage life. His methods worked from a runner development perspective, but they backfired from a family relations perspective.

Gjert would have been wiser to either let the kids be coached by someone else or coach them but still let them do more normal teenage things. Treat running as a semi serious pursuit without having their lives revolve around it. Don't expect 14 year olds to live the full time professional runner lifestyle. If Gjert had let his kids have a normal teenage life, Jakob probably wouldn't have reached the precocious heights he did as a teenager, but they'd probably have a better relationship.

It's very sad. I hope the family eventually reconciles.

I think you're exactly right about how Gjert sees things. Which is unfortunate because, based on cold hard facts, he is correct that denying them a normal life made them exceptional athletes. But that's at the expense of a normal life and, more importantly, a normal relationship with their father. Gjert torpedoing his relationship with his entire family just so he can say "I was right!" is pretty sad, honestly.

Wrong.

He built the recipe with help of experts.

But his unique training is unique to him. Just like your training is unique to you. Everybody is influenced by people. But no one can take away from gjert What he did in terms of the training n result. He built on what others had been doing.

If im not totally mistaken the original origin/idea comes from research on swimmers or ice skaters and a Norwegian researcher/physiologist studied their training. Bakken then took it to running .

I haven't faced any criminal charges. But anyone with the smallest degree of knowledge would have to differ with such as you. You ought to be used to it.