Norwegian athletics coach Gjert Ingebrigtsen on Monday denied physically abusing his son and daughter, telling a court he had been an “overly protective” father who had tried to help his ambitious children.
Gjert Ingebrigtsen has pleaded not guilty to charges of physically abusing double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Ingrid Ingebrigtsen, a promising athlete who gave up competitive running at the age of 15 in 2022.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen – who won 5,000m gold at the Paris Games and the 1,500m in Tokyo – last week described a childhood marked by fear and manipulation when he took the witness stand.
He described several incidents of violence. In one of them, prosecutors allege Gjert Ingebrigtsen struck his son several times after receiving a negative report about his behaviour from school when he was eight.
On Monday, Gjert Ingebrigtsen addressed the court in his own defence, saying he had sought to protect all seven of his children, two more of whom, Henrik and Filip, also became successful athletes. He denied all allegations of violence, telling the court that he was so opposed to it that he told his children not to play violent video games. But he accepted that he had sometimes been demanding as a coach and admitted throwing a PlayStation out of a window on one occasion.
“Highlighting relevant incidents in relation to the charges may make it seem like I am being portrayed negatively towards my children,” he said. “But I love my children immensely.
“I became a father very early, with an enormous need to protect,” he was quoted as saying by Norwegian state broadcaster NRK. “I became what one might call overly protective.”
He told the court the ambition of some of his children had been “absolutely extreme” when they got involved in sports, according to NRK.
“I never heard ‘could you please,’ but rather entirely different demands and expectations. The demands from the children were about district level, national level, European level, and world level. Later, ‘Dad’ became ‘Gjert,’ and ‘Gjert’ became ‘the accused’,” he was quoted as saying.
The 59-year-old denied whipping his daughter with a towel in an incident in January 2022, but said he found it “extremely difficult to accept my own actions” and that the “loss” of Ingrid, who moved out in the aftermath, was “extreme”, according to a report by The Guardian.
The Guardian also reported that Gjert painted an unflattering picture of Jakob, who attended court, while giving evidence. The coach described him as being “a privileged boy his whole life, he’s been allowed to do and say whatever he wants. He’s almost been carried on a golden chair his whole life.”
He said that while there had been disputes over coaching matters there was “nothing physical”, and he denied kicking his son in an incident when Jakob was eight or nine years old.
“It is completely unthinkable that I would have kicked him,” he said. “It is completely out of the question to kick one of my children.”
Regarding video games, he said they were a frequent source of friction between him and his children as he discouraged them from playing some which contained elements of violence. “I have spent a lot of time implementing non-violence in my children’s upbringing,” he said. “Violence is not a solution to anything.”
Gjert Ingebrigtsen faces up to six years in prison if he is convicted, with the trial due to run until May 16 in Sandnes, Norway.
Additional reporting by Reuters
