He is on the cusp of competing in senior level athletics and joining his brothers in their hardcore training regimen. It is a surprise when Henrik Ingebrigtsen goes to shake my hand. In the same year, he finished fifth in the London Olympic final. But principally, it is because almost every moment in their life is geared around their athletic endeavours. When Henrik began his athletics journey a decade ago, Gjert knew nothing about the sport. Prior to the strike Ingebrigtsen also appeared to charge his shoulder in Lemi on at least two occasions.
You need to have a different mentality. Two years earlier, he set a world record for 14-year-olds in the 1,500-meters. At the Prefontaine Classic in May 2018, Ingebrigtsen clocked 3:52. Like most parent-children sporting relationships, it is an unconventional dynamic. The 1500-meter title marked the third European gold medal brought home for Norway by the Ingebrigtsen brothers.
They do that every day and become good runners. Pro runners get to have all the fun. Nature will undoubtedly have played a significant part in his success, but it is the nurture he has been given that is most interesting. To most Norwegians it is a way of life. How does one account for such meteoric talent? Last year, at age 16, Jakob became the. The brothers and Gjert spend around 200 days a year away from home and this is the final altitude camp ahead of the World Championships.
In the process, he beat his brother Henrik by one second. The coming together and ensuing tangle of legs caused Lemi to lose his balance and fall to the ground while Ingebrigtsen qualified for Friday's semi-final, as did his brother Jakob. For the past few decades, African runners have dominated middle and long-distance running, with Kenyans, Ethiopians and Ugandans ubiquitous at the top of a global rankings list punctuated by other African-born athletes running for different nations and an Ingebrigtsen or three. It seems to be paying off. Not because one-third of athletics' most famous band of brothers is rude - far from it. Before Ingebrigtsen attempted the feat, no runner in history had ever managed to complete the 1500-5,000-meter title sweep there. This would square with the somewhat romanticized origin stories of many of the great East African runners; e.
It also explains why we are meeting in the picturesque ski resort of St Moritz in Switzerland. Dennis Kimetto, who was the marathon record holder until ,. At the 2018 European Championships last summer in Berlin, the teenager shocked the track world with two titles at the age of 17. The question is whether he is simply peaking at an unusually young age or if he can continue to improve. You need to be focused over time. The performance built on his breakthrough 2017 race at the same meet, where he became the in history. Tadesse needs to be reinstated and Filip diqualified in the 1500m! For better or worse, Micheli has observed a general trend of many young American athletes narrowing their athletic focus early on.
The first episode includes old footage of the boys doing a predawn workout on skates. Morning training has taken place in persistent drizzle and the brothers have just arrived in their slick Team Ingebrigtsen-branded car. The Ingebrigtsen mantra might be relentless, but it is propelling this family to greatness. Not only did Ingebrigtsen manage to make history by winning both crowns, he did it as. His father Gjert coaches Ingebrigtsen and his older brothers Filip, 25, and Henrik, 27, who have both established their own impressive track careers. You have to take decisions in a short time and have to believe that what you are doing is the best for the boys.
Facing off against world indoor champion Tefera, 19, the Norwegian won the 1500 meters in of 3:36. He still made out okay. He was 16 years old at the time he ran 3:58. A scientific study of the issue would probably necessitate a time frame of several decades. All three Ingebrigtsen brothers are coached by their father, Gjert Ingebrigtsen, who had no background in track and field either as an athlete or a coach when his sons took an interest in the sport, but had accrued plenty of coaching practice by the time he got to Jakob. International success on the track On August 10, Ingebrigtsen dethroned his own brother Filip as the champion over 1500 meters. The next day, he returned to of 13:17.
If we follow the same things they do, but better and smarter, we can beat them. And unlike some famous sporting parents who have inflicted their own desires onto their offspring, Gjert was driven to covet gold by his sons rather than the other way round. Few international runners of any age exude as much confidence on the track as Jakob, let alone teenagers. It has taken 11 months to secure this interview with the most fascinating family in athletics, their first with a British newspaper. The driving force behind Team Ingebrigtsen is father Gjert, whom the show portrays as an authoritarian hard-ass who discourages his sons from doing anything that could sidetrack their athletic ambitions, e. But neither of the elder Ingebrigtsens were as freakishly precocious as their younger brother. Barrel-chested in his upright running stance, he was chastised in some quarters for attempting to high-five Henrik during the middle stages of his European 5000m victory last summer, with Gjert and Henrik making it known they were not impressed.
Yet away from what can be dismissed as youthful exuberance, Jakob and his brothers are unrepentant in their quest for greatness. Instead, their father and coach, Gjert, had warned that - in the relentless quest for perfection - none of Henrik, 28, Filip, 26, or Jakob, 18, will run the risk of catching something. At 14, an age when Ingebrigtsen ran a world-record time of 3:48 in the 1,500, Rupp was just getting his feet wet. It does not translate directly into English, but it essentially means putting society above the individual, not boasting about personal accomplishments and not attempting to better yourself beyond anyone else. Imagine a Scandinavian take on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, except the drama unfolds on the west coast of Norway instead of Los Angeles County.
We caught up with the Norwegian wunderkind after the race. In August, Jakob Ingebrigtsen won both the 1,500 and 5,000-meter events at the European Championships. The youngest of the famed running brothers from Norway, Jakob Ingebrigtsen is well on his way to becoming one of the best middle distance runners of his generation. For that, Gjert is to thank - or blame, depending on your stance. Again, it comes down to rejecting janteloven.