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The moment that ripped apart track and field’s most successful and eccentric family came in January 2022, after the 15‑year‑old sister of the Tokyo Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen was grounded by her father after school.
At that point, Jakob and his brothers Filip and Henrik, were all European, world or Olympic champions, having trained like professionals since before they were teenagers. They were also major TV stars in Norway thanks to the docuseries Team Ingebrigtsen, where they appeared alongside their coach and father Gjert.
Gjert, whose manner could make an army drill sergeant sound touchy-feely, outlined his philosophy early in series one. “I don’t want to be an angry man, I want to be a father,” he said. “But if being an angry man brings them their dreams I will tolerate what I am missing.”
But on that day in 2022, Gjert’s anger went too far. It led to him striking his daughter with a wet towel, his sons to ditch and denounce him, and to a courthouse in Sandnes, Norway where he stood trial for physically and mentally abusing Jakob and Ingrid.
Amid tense court scenes in March this year, Gjert explained what he felt had happened. “She’s really angry and says: ‘I fucking don’t want to be in this prison of yours any more,’ while holding her index finger at me.
“I pull the towel against her finger twice in quick succession. She then says: ‘What the hell are you doing, are you hitting me?’ To which I reply: ‘I didn’t hit you.’”
Ingrid’s testimony, though, told a different story.
“I had been so depressed and ignored for several months, I simply felt bullied,” she said. “I pushed his finger away. He had a small towel that he had been sweating in, so it was wet. He whipped it at my face. First once without hitting. Then he did it once more, and then he hit me on the cheek.”
After a month of deliberations, the court issued its 31-page verdict on Monday. And when it came to the wet-towel incident it was unequivocal. “There is no doubt that the defendant acted intentionally.”
The court noted that Ingrid had fled to her brother Henrik’s home and that his wife, Liva, had taken a photograph of a red mark across Ingrid’s face.
“Ingrid’s explanation is significantly strengthened by other evidence,” the court said. “She left the house and moved out. The defendant, in turn, sent her a message the next day in which he strongly regretted the incident, emphasising that he needed help and that he wanted to see a doctor and psychologist.
“The court therefore assumes as proven beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant hit Ingrid in the face with a blow with a small and damp towel.”
As a result of his actions, Gjert received a 15-day suspended sentence and was ordered to pay his daughter £744. Yet when the verdict was announced on Monday his reaction was one of “relief”, according to one of his attorneys, Heidi Reisvang.
Why? Because when it came to every other allegation against him, the prosecution was unable to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The court accepted that Jakob and Ingrid’s evidence had often been “credible”. However, it said that in many instances it was impossible to know the truth when Gjert, his wife, Tone, or one brother, Martin, had one view of an incident – while Jakob, Ingrid and the other siblings had another.
Jakob, for instance, told the court that he had been punched “many times” by his father when he was eight, after receiving a negative report about his behaviour from school.
The incident was confirmed by Filip, who was said to have observed it from an adjacent room. However, Martin said that his father had only grabbed Jakob and held him against the wall while he yelled. According to the ruling, memories could have been distorted by time – and antipathy.
Some of the allegations, though, were dismissed by the court. It ruled that Jakob’s claims to have been knocked off his scooter and kicked in the stomach by his father in front of witnesses were “incomprehensible”, suggesting that someone would have surely reacted to a little boy being attacked.
It also dismissed prosecutors’ claims the Ingebrigtsen household had been “characterised by continuous insecurity and fear of violence” between 2008 and 2018. While it acknowledged Gjert was sometimes angry, it said it was “difficult to reconcile” the allegation with testimony from family friends, athletes and TV crews.
The court also pointed to a heated 30-minute argument between Gjert and Jakob at a training camp in St Moritz in 2019, which was recorded by Henrik without his father’s consent and later played in court, as evidence that Jakob was no shrinking violet.
The judges described it as “loud and rather pointless”, but added: “It must be emphasised that Jakob shows no sign of fear or submission towards the defendant. He stands his ground and retaliates against the defendant’s verbal abuse.”
So what might happen now? Speaking after the verdict, Reisvang held out hope that this great schism could be mended. “As Gjert said during the trial, he wants to reconcile with his family, and he hopes that he will have a relationship with them at some point,” she said. “That hasn’t changed.”
Jakob’s reaction to the ruling came only via an Instagram post of a picture of his daughter, Filippa, which appeared to suggest hell might freeze over first.
“I will always be there for her if she needs a hug,” he wrote. “I will cheer for her, whatever choice she makes (except if she steals my 911 GT3 RS). I will give her space if space is what she asks for. And I will love and respect her unconditionally (even if she steals my 911 GT3 RS)!”
It was a promise that was touching and pointed. But while it spoke of looking to the future, you suspect there are scars here that will never disappear.
