Mariano Haro and Jakob Ingebrigtsen share a racing childhood in their biography. The man from Palencia, from a very young age, running on foot every day for miles and miles through the moors of Tierra de Campos, hunting rabbits with his dog, challenging the train to Palencia, which like the one in Santa Marta, whistles more than it runs, carrying the food to his father, another broker, who built brick after brick vats for wine in the wineries of the towns around Becerril de Campos. The life of a child in Castile lasts in the 40s and 50s. The Norwegian, from the age of three, running after his older brothers in the snow and around the lake of Stavanger, wealthy petite bourgeoisie, 21st century, and his father, skipper and coach, with a whistle, methodical, directing and training, and demanding.
Their childhood, the kilometers they ran, the workload to which they subjected their bodies, made them champions, and both of them, when they tell their lives, always highlight it. Haro, who was always on the verge of international victory – fourth in the 72nd Olympic Games in Munich, second four times in the cross country World Championships – also made him feel free, happy master of his destiny; He made Ingebrigtsen a bitter slave. Sports success – twice world champion, Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020 – demands a vital price that he may never be able to pay, nor can his father, Gjert, who turned his life and that of his seven children into a reality show who for five years brought together a million viewers once a week, and who the Prosecutor’s Office in his country has just accused of physical abuse of one of his sons, a younger brother of Filip (31 years old), Henrik (33) and Jakob (23), the three who triumphed in athletics.
According to the Norwegian newspaper VG (Verdens Gang, The Course of the World) Gjert Ingebrigtsen hit one of his seven children on the cheek with a wet towel. Police believe he subjected her to threats, coercion and violence for four years. “The two-page indictment,” the newspaper explains, “describes threats, coercion, violence, restriction of freedom of movement and other forms of crime. A key event in the investigation was an incident with a towel at the beginning of January 2022. At that time, Gjert Ingebrigtsen and the attacked child reportedly had an argument. According to the prosecution, Ingebrigtsen yelled at the victim, put a finger in his face and hit him with a wet towel, leaving a red mark on his cheek.
According to the Norwegian penal code, cases of family violence can be punished by up to six years in prison.
Lawyer Mette Yvonne Larsen, who represents five of the brothers, explained in the Norwegian media that the towel case is the only one of the six episodes of violence reported by Gjert’s children admitted by the prosecution, but that she plans to appeal the file from one of the others. “The charges that have been filed are serious and affect one of my clients who is in a vulnerable situation. Now the person in question is believed,” says Larsen in VG. “Everyone has told me about a tough childhood. “They have always wanted to get Gjert out of their lives.”
The father’s lawyer points out that his client pleads not guilty. “You don’t agree with the presentation of the facts on which the accusation is based,” he says. Thanks to the success of his children, Gjert Ingebrigtsen, who has always proclaimed himself self-taught, became famous throughout the world. He was named coach of the year in Norway in 2019. He wrote books on the art of training and nutrition. His training method became all the rage and became fashionable all over the world.
“This is a private family situation. They do not wish to comment on the matter,” a representative of the brothers said in a statement. “They ask for peace and quiet and want to focus completely on their sporting activities. “They are grateful that the press has respected this wish.”
A few days after the attack with the towel, Henrik, Filip and Jakob announced that they were completely breaking off their professional and personal relationship with their father, and that from then on they would train with each other. Rumors of a violent family conflict began to circulate, which were confirmed a year later when the three published a letter in the V.G. in which they spoke of a childhood characterized by physical and psychological violence, as well as the screaming and controlling behavior of their own father. “We have experienced the fear of growing up with an aggressive, controlling and violent father. When we were younger, we were a great group of brothers who faced it together. Now the situation is unbearable,” Ingebrigtsen’s three children wrote. His father responded: “The claims they make are unfounded. I have never used violence against my children. The fact that I have had weaknesses as a father, and that I have been an excessive coach, is a realization that I have also come to myself, although too late.”
The father then began to train Narve Gilje Nordås, a middle distance runner of 1,500m and 5,000m, Jakob’s distances, of whom he has become the biggest rival. Precisely, on Tuesday the 30th, Nordås, bronze medalist in Budapest, and Per Svela, another pupil of Gjert, compete in the 5,000m of the Ibero-American rally in Huelva, a competition in which Filip Ingebrigtsen will also be in, but in the 1,500m. His father, whose federation has denied accreditation for the next European Championships in Rome, and whom the Norwegian Olympic Committee does not want to accredit for the Paris Games, is not expected in the Andalusian city. In them, Jakob, who, half injured, has not yet competed this year, will seek to revalidate his gold in the 1,500m and finally triumph at the Olympics in the 5,000m.
You can follow The USA Print in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
