I have no friends or enemies, only competitors
Aristotle Onassis
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Jakob Ingebrigtsen (24) is definitely right: he doesn’t see friends in stadium locker rooms. He only sees adversaries.
The argument is genetic. The elite athlete only thinks about defeating the opponent. The rival is an obstacle, an impediment to overcome on the path to glory. If someone doesn’t think like that, then they don’t have the gene. He is not an elite athlete.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen enjoys competition because he knows he is superior to the rest. He has the perfect genetics: the physique and the mind accompany him. Each of his races is a party for his senses. Jakob Ingebrigtsen plays with the others. And he enjoys it so much that it is not enough for him to win one day.
He wants to repeat the next day.
If on a Friday in September, in Brussels, he wins the diamond of the 1,500m of the Diamond League, two days later he looks for the new one: he flies to Copenhagen, he faces his debut in a half marathon.
(He leaves the test bruised, as he had not prepared at all: he finds himself surrounded by African specialists, falls from the leading group at km 10, finishes four minutes behind the winner, clocks 1h03m13s and finally, eventually, gives up : “I won’t try it again… at least for a couple of years”).
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Since the stumble in Copenhagen, not two years have passed, but two months have passed and here we have the Norwegian Viking again, once again ready for combat, once again far from his comfort zone.
This Sunday, Jakob Ingebrigtsen takes a look at cross country, a discipline that he handles with a certain solvency (he has two European titles, in 2021 and 2022) although it has nothing to do with the vertigo of synthetics. He does it in the Europeans from Dokumapark, north of Antalya (Türkiye)relatively flat carpet of grass, dotted with artificial obstacles. There are 7.8 km in which talents such as the lightweight Yemaneberhan Crippa, the French Yann Schrubb (2023 champion), the Swede Andreas Almgren, the Spaniards Thierry Ndikumwenayo and Adel Mechaal and the Norwegians Filip Ingebrigtsen (his middle brother) will be measured. ) and Magns Tuv Myhre, silver last year.
(We can follow it on Teledeporte starting at 9 a.m. Spanish time).
And?
The journalist likes to philosophize. He wonders if this Jakob Ingebrigtsen who enjoys competing so much is, in fact, running away from something else.
Maybe from his father.
In the background of the image the shadow of Gjert Ingebrigtsen is silhouetted, his father and his mentor in the beginning, today a plague for his family.
His seven children want him behind bars.
All of them, and Jakob, the most.
The story is as old as Gjert’s children are, and we have been able to follow it in the television serial that, for years, the family has shared with their followers (it is on YouTube), with those derived from recent years: now, Gjert He is no longer the paterfamilias but someone who is outside the group and about to face the judge. His trial for family abuse will begin in the coming weeks, possibly before the end of the year, news that Jakob has publicly anticipated on several occasions, in complaints through statements on social networks:
-We have known the fear of growing up with an aggressive, controlling and violent father. When we were younger, we were a big group of brothers who were in this together. Now the situation is unbearable.
While lawyers sharpen their legal arguments, Jakob Ingebrigtsen watches over weapons in Antalya. It has dozens of open fronts. He tells himself he can handle everyone.
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