Dear Hanssen, you seem like a rational guy. You are trying to make a logical line of arguments. And your conclution though is that it is hard for you to believe that the three Ingebrigtsen Brothers are clean, yes, it seems very fishy to you. Actually, you write that they are on PED; perhaps asthma medication or genetic therapy? At least you find it hard to believe that they are clean, and it seems "very fishy".
1. "A nation of five million". Correct.
2 "that doesnt take track very seriously". Not correct. Not at all.This year Karsten Warholm 47.12 400 m hurdles. In 2017 Sondre Nordstad Moen 2.05.48, the all time best for a runner of non african origin. Vebjorn Rodal, gold 800 m in Atlanta 1996. And may be you have heard about Grete Waitz and Ingrid Kristiansen?
3. And then the list. Just for comparation. The seven best all time 5000 m Norway+USA until 1975:
1. N Knut Kvalheim
2. USA
3. USA
4. USA
5. N
6. N the oldest of the Kvalheim Brothers, Arne
7. N
Logically, one can't draw any conclution at all form such lists, or maybe NCAA was bad at that time too, or that american long distance runners were lazy. But in a small nation, two brothers? Hard to believe? Fishy? Let's make a thought Experiment, there are only two of the brothers, no Henrik. Genetics is strange, so is epigenetics.
4. The training. Your presumption is that the training can't be better. Yes, not the training per se. The father has no background in atheletics whatsoever. He did'nt know anything about the Norwegian national sport, winter skiing.But when the family settled, a big and relatively poor familiy, in the town of Sandnes (it doe'nt snow in Sandnes) they started with cross country skiing. Henrik soon became Norwegian junior champion on 10 K. But it was too costly and too tough for them. No snow in the area, you know. They switched to running. You write "from a nonrunning country". There are amazingly many track and field clubs in such a small country. The Bislet Games, which has produced a lot of world records, may be compared to Prefontaine Classic, at least.
I, and it takes to elaborate, it, think that one could make a case for the how the traing is done and the consistency and the planning actually are better. Not the workouts, but when and how they are performed and what they learn about it. Logically, it is possible, right? If not we are down to basic genetics or as you indicates doping.
5. Families. We have had a lot of fathers in sports in Norway. But we also have a very good, extremely good organised sport. The establishment of The Olympic Top after it became clear that the Olympic Games in 1994 the Olympic Top was etstablised, a kind of "DDR-organisation" to get the results after the Winter Olymips in 1988, no gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze. In 1992 9-6-5, best nation, even though, before that we had not taken alpine skiing very seriously, not as seriously as track. 1994 10-11-5. It must be doping, right?
The Ingebrigtsen Family differs in many ways from the others. But, never mind. Norway is an open society. We know the families. In the Ingebrigtsen Family with spouses, babies, three more brothers and a sister, girlfriend, friends, still keeping the Secrets? If some of you on these threads had known a little bit about Norway, at least on the level of my rusty English, so.....
6. How, with the scarce resourses, could Gjert Ingebrigtsen make a doping program in Secret, especially in an environment like in Sandnes and Norway. It might be possible with one kid, but three? Year after year. All the doping equipment. In a country with few dopingcases and a very thight dopingcontrol. Much stricter than in USA.
7. Genetics. They are not very fast. But they have extremely high VO2max. Jakob has an advantage, like nearly no one else, he can run at submaximal speed for a very, very long time. He started to train within Gjerts programme when he was 12. Much earlier than the other Brothers. So let us see. This Autumn they are going to train in Africa, together with the Manangoi brothers and Cheruiyot, and they must bring all their dopingequipment so here is the chance for investigating journalists, what do you think? We have a lot of good investigating journalists in Norway. But facts,my friend, facts...sorry, this is too long now..