Jakob Asserson Ingebrigtsen (born 19 September 2000) is a Norwegian middle- and long-distance runner, a two-time Olympic champion, and the winner of seven senior global titles. He won Olympic gold in the 1500 metres at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 5000 metres at the 2024 Paris Olympics, consecutive World Championship titles in the 5000 metres in 2022 and 2023, the 1500 metres and 3000 metres double at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships, and the 5000 metres at the inaugural 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship. Ingebrigtsen holds world records in the short track 1500 metres, short track mile, 2000 metres and 3000 metres, as well as the world best for two miles. He has set six senior world-record or world-best marks during his career, five of which are current. He is also a seven-time European champion and seven-time European indoor champion, having completed the 1500 metres and 5000 metres double at three consecutive European Championships and the 1500 metres and 3000 metres double at three consecutive European Indoor Championships. Ingebrigtsen is also a three-time senior European cross country champion and a four-time Diamond League Final winner.
The youngest athlete in the Ingebrigtsen family, his older brothers Henrik and Filip are also middle-distance runners who compete internationally. They were trained by their father, Gjert, until 2022. Ingebrigtsen had a successful junior career: at age 16, he became the youngest man in history to run a sub-four minute mile at the time. In junior competition, he won four consecutive European Cross Country Championships, a gold medal in 5000 metres at the 2017 European under-20 Championships, and set a European under-20 record in the 3000 metres steeplechase.
Ingebrigtsen is a two-time winner of the European Athletics European Athlete of the Year award, a one-time winner of the European Athletics Rising Star of the Year award, a four-time nominee of the World Athletics Athlete of the Year award, and a one-time nominee of the Laureus World Sports Breakthrough of the Year award.
Early life and background
Ingebrigtsen was born in Sandnes, Norway to Gjert and Tone Eva Ingebrigtsen, part of the Ingebrigtsen family of athletes. He has six siblings, with two of his older brothers, Henrik and Filip, also being professional runners.
By his own account, Ingebrigtsen was training in a professional style since age four or five. He tried multiple sports, including cross-country skiing and football, but committed to running by age nine. By age twelve, he had a focused training plan including weight lifting and running over 100 kilometres a week. Throughout their childhood, the Ingebrigtsen brothers were coached by their father Gjert, who had no professional running or coaching background but took an interest in his sons' athletic careers. He began reading books and consulting with other coaches in order to fill the role.
Ingebrigtsen graduated from in 2019. Since 2022, he has been self-coached alongside input from his brothers Henrik and Filip. He credits much of his success to his father refining training plans that had been used by his older brothers, saying "Henrik has done a lot of stupid things, Filip has done some and I haven't really done anything stupid. That's why I am going to run so fast in the end."
Youth and junior career 2017: Youngest sub four-minute mile
On 27 May, still 16 years old, Ingebrigtsen became the youngest athlete in history at the time to run the mile in less than four minutes, when he ran 3:58.07, finishing in eleventh place at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon. This age record has since beaten by Sam Ruthe of New Zealand, who ran 3:58.35 in 2025 at the age of 15. On 15 June, Ingebrigtsen ran almost two seconds faster, when he won a mile run with a time of 3:56.29 at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway. Ingebrigtsen's time stood as an age group world record until Cameron Myers of Australia broke it in 2023, with a time of 3:55.44. On 8 July, in his first attempt at the distance, he beat the European Under-20 record in the 3000 metres steeplechase at the Guldensporenmeeting in Kortrijk, Belgium with a time of 8:26.81.
2018: European champion in 1500 and 5000 metres
On 26 May, at age 17, Ingebrigtsen finished fourth in the Prefontaine Classic's Bowerman Mile, with a time of 3:52.28. It was the fastest mile ever run by a 17-year-old at the time. In August, Ingebrigtsen ran at the 2018 European Athletics Championships. In the 1500 metres, running alongside his brothers Henrik and Filip, he won gold with a time of 3:38.10, becoming the youngest ever European champion in this event. The next day, Ingebrigtsen ran in the 5000 metres final, winning again to become the first man ever to achieve the 1500 / 5000 metres double at the European championships. His time of 13:17.06 also broke his own European under-20 record.
2019: European under-20 record in 5000 metres and 10 kilometres
On 20 February, at the PSD Bank Meeting in Düsseldorf, Ingebrigtsen set a world under-20 record in the short track 1500 metres, with a time of 3:36.02. At the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Ingebrigtsen won the 3000 metres and placed second behind Marcin Lewandowski in the 1500 metres, in times of 7:56.18 and 3:43.23, respectively. On 5 July, Ingebrigtsen set a new personal best in the 1500 metres when he ran 3:30.16 at the Athletissima meeting for second position. On 20 July at the Anniversary Games in London, Ingebrigtsen set a new Norwegian national record and under-20 European record in the 5000 metres with a time of 13:02.03, finishing second. At the World Championships held in Doha, Ingebrigtsen placed fourth in the 1500 metres and fifth in the 5000 metres. On 19 October, Ingebrigtsen broke Sondre Nordstad Moen's Norwegian 10 kilometres national record at the Hytteplanmila in Hole, Norway, winning the race in 27:54. This time was also the fastest time by a European in 2019, and a European under-20 best.
Senior career
2020–2021: 1500 metres European record and Olympic champion On 14 August 2020, at the Herculis meeting in Monaco, Ingebrigtsen broke the 3:30 barrier in the 1500 metres for the first time, running 3:28.68, which was under Mo Farah's 7-year-old European record of 3:28.81. Ingebrigtsen also broke the European record in the short track 1500 metres at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais on 9 February 2021, running a time of 3:31.80. At the European Indoor Championships in Toruń, Ingebrigtsen won both the 1500 metres and 3000 metres, becoming the first male athlete to complete the double at the Championships. On 10 June 2021 at the Golden Gala in Florence, Italy, Ingebrigtsen set a new European record in the 5000 metres with his time of 12:48.45, in a race where a half-dozen competitors bested a time of 12:55.
At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, on 7 August 2021, Ingebrigtsen set an Olympic and European record of 3:28.32 to secure gold in the 1500 metres final. This eclipsed the newly set Olympic record of 3:31.65 established by the Kenyan Abel Kipsang in the Tokyo semifinals, and the previous Olympic record of 3:32.07 set by Noah Ngeny in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Ingebrigtsen became the second youngest winner in this event. On the final bend, he overtook for the first time his Kenyan rival Timothy Cheruiyot, who won the silver medal. On 21 August, Ingebrigtsen set a new personal best and Diamond League record of 3:47.21 in winning the mile at the Prefontaine Classic. At the season-ending Weltklasse Zürich meeting, which served as the 2021 Diamond League final, Ingebrigtsen placed second to Cheruiyot in the 1500 metres, who edged him out over the final sprint.
2022: World indoor 1500 metres record, 5000 metres world champion
On 17 February 2022, Ingebrigtsen set his first senior world record, clocking 3:30.60 for the short track 1500 metres at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Liévin. He broke Samuel Tefera's 3-year-old record by 0.44 seconds.
About a month later at the 2022 World Indoor Championships held in Belgrade, he was beaten in the event by Tefera, who ran a new championship record of 3:32.77 while Ingebrigtsen placed second in a time of 3:33.02. Ingebrigtsen tested positive for COVID-19 the following day. In June, he improved his own Diamond League and national record in the mile to 3:46.46 in winning at the Bislett Games in Oslo, only missing Steve Cram's European record by 0.14 s.
At the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Ingebrigtsen achieved a silver medal in the 1500 metres after being outsprinted by Jake Wightman of Great Britain. He also won the gold medal in the 5000 metres, in a time of 13:09.24. In winning, Ingebrigtsen became the first male runner not born in Africa to win an Olympic or World Championships gold in the 5000 metres in 30 years, going back to Dieter Baumann in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
In August, Ingebrigtsen won both the 1500 metres and 5000 metres at the 2022 European Championships. In the former event, he set a championship record of 3:32.76, and in the latter event he finished in 13:21.13.
At the season-ending Weltklasse Zürich meeting, which served as the 2022 Diamond League final, he defeated Timothy Cheruiyot in the 1500 metres to take his first Diamond League title. The victory brought his lifetime head-to-head with Cheruiyot to 7–13 at the time.
2023: 2 mile world best, 2000 metres world record
In March at the European Indoor Championships held in Istanbul, Turkey, Ingebrigtsen secured the 1500 / 3000 metres 'double-double', winning both events for the second time. He set a championship record of 3:33.95 at the shorter distance and broke the Norwegian record at the longer event with a time of 7:40.32.
At the Meeting de Paris on 9 June, Ingebrigtsen set the two mile world best by running 7:54.10, improving Daniel Komen's previous world best of 7:58.61, set in 1997, by 4.51 seconds. This made Ingebrigtsen the second man in history, after Komen, to break eight minutes in the two mile and thus average two miles at a sub four minute mile pace.
On 15 June, Ingebrigtsen improved his own European record in the 1500 metres at the Bislett Games, breaking the 3:28 barrier for the first time by running 3:27.95. On 16 July, at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial, Ingebrigtsen further improved his time to 3:27.14.
For the second successive championships, Ingebrigtsen finished second in the final sprint to a Scottish and British athlete, Josh Kerr, in the 1500 metres final at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. He repeated as the gold-medal winner in the 5000 metres. Less than two weeks later, Ingebrigtsen set a new world record in the 2000 metres at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, with a time of 4:43.13, eclipsing Hicham El Guerrouj's previous record of 4:44.79 set in 1999 by 1.66 seconds.
Ingebrigtsen ended his season with victories in the mile and 3000 metres at the Prefontaine Classic, which also served as the 2023 Diamond League final. He edged Yared Nuguse for the win in the mile, winning in 3:43.73 and missing the world record by 0.60 seconds. His time was a new European record and the third-fastest time ever run, behind Noah Ngeny's 3:43.40 and Hicham El Guerrouj's world record of 3:43.13, both ran in 1999. In the 3000 metres, Ingebrigtsen defeated Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia, by one hundredth of a second, in a sprint finish. At the time, Ingebrigtsen's clocking of 7:23.63 was the third fastest ever run at the distance, behind El Guerrouj's 1999 time of 7:23.09 and Daniel Komen's world record of 7:20.67, set in 1996.