Jakob Ingebrigtsen on Beating His Brothers — and Everybody Else
- May 24, 2024
If you toe the starting line against Jakob Ingebrigtsen, he will beat you. The Norwegian middle-distance runner says it with a casual coolness, and yet his accolades reflect a talent that’s dead serious. When he was 16 years old, Jakob became the youngest man in history to run a mile in less than four minutes. Now the 23-year-old is one of the world leaders in both the mile and the 5,000 meters.
He attributes his supreme confidence to his insane competitive drive against his two older brothers, who pushed him to become one of running’s brightest, most accomplished stars. Here, Jakob talks on competition, goals and the attitude it takes to win.
Competition, not sport, was our family's first love. When it came to us finding running, none of our parents did any kind of sports. But because we’re a big family, us boys are always finding ways to compete with each other, and running was an immediate way to settle the score.
Siblings are worthy of both your emulation and envy. When I was young, saying that I wanted to be like my brother was synonymous with saying, ‘I want to beat them.’
At the same time, when your family wins, you win. I remember when I saw Henrik crying when Filip won the World Championships in 2017. Henrik told me he had the exact same reaction when I won at the Olympics. Weirdly, we feel like we’re part of each other’s process when we achieve some kind of success.
I’ve brought a professional approach to running since I was 5 years old. I’d have a mental routine going before my races by the time I was in the first grade. My friends were wearing flip-flops. I was wearing a speed suit. The most important thing in my life was to win my races.
“Doing what everyone else is doing is boring. By running in Norway, I was the weird kid. Now I’m winning medals.”
Even as a kid, you sense that your country has a national sport. We’re not a big running nation. Growing up in Norway, running wasn’t cool — I never talked about it at school. That’s global football and cross-country skiing. We focused on running as we got older, but we grew up playing everything, especially snow sports. Now, we’re breaking barriers for our country. We’re the new running nation.
The competitive side of running is even more important than the physical aspects. Me and Henrik both learned from our older brother being, ahem, sort of arrogant and, uh, cocky in some ways. He always went into a race thinking he could win, even when he was way slower than the rest of the field. But he inspired the two of us to build our own confidence. If he gets a bronze, I’m naturally going to get silver or gold.
Running is a lonely sport, so when you have moments when you’re challenging another runner to do something historic, those stick with you. My brothers and I trained with Eliud Kipchoge for Breaking2. Seeing the level of athletes who trained alongside him was crazy. At the end of the day, we all have the same goal: to see how fast human beings can go at different distances. We’re competing for that honor, but we’re also united by that competition.
The most important thing that younger runners can do is to set goals for themselves. For me, it was to beat my brothers, and by doing that, I became one of the best runners in the world.
Doing what everyone else is doing is boring. By running in Norway, I was the weird kid. Now I’m winning medals.