Jakobs life behind the gold

If I got this correct some Norewegian coaches have said that the problem with early childhood failure and burnout in Norway is "some overambitious parents. They have seen too much Team Ingebrigtsen and run their children as adult athletes from the age of eight to ten (NRK).

george of the jungle wrote:

If I got this correct some Norewegian coaches have said that the problem with early childhood failure and burnout in Norway is "some overambitious parents. They have seen too much Team Ingebrigtsen and run their children as adult athletes from the age of eight to ten (NRK).

That's a much bigger problem in all sports with BIG money involved. Which T&A and Nordic Skiing really doesn't have until you reach the absolute top level. You wanna see overambitious parents you'll find them at Soccer practice, where talented young teens can get million dollar contracts from clubs in southern Europe with "puppy farms".

Soccer player Erling Haaland is probably Norways biggest role model for such parents and the most popular athlete in all of Norway - except of course for this week and maybe next! ;-)

It took him 7 years to scrape a pass in his degree.

Any comparisons to the US collegiate system and whether an athlete's gotten a degree or not during his pre-olympic years is pointless here since the Scandinavian countries have a system where their most talented young athletes get state money support through their Olympic Committees and National Federations for up to several years before big championships. Not big money, but enough for housing and food etc.

Armand Duplantis didn't switch from USA to Sweden just so that he didn't need to risk not making top 3 before a major championship (although I'm sure that part helped also), as a potential world champ finalist (remember, he was still an uncut diamond when he switched) he straight up got monetary support for the ongoing olympic cycle, and even if he would have finished last in last weeks final it would have been enough to keep him on it for the coming years up until at least Paris 2024.

And before you ask - no, there's not even a tops three peeps per event support limit - in Nordic Skiing (where they can send four starters per event at the Olympics) there's about eight to ten men and eight to ten women receiving this kind of support in Sweden - an A Team National Team, with a somewhat less supported B Team beneath it. And Norway has an even bigger A Team as far as I know.

Good words there.

Jakob is a happy person. I'm happy for you too. Meanwhile, Jakob gets 150.000 USD into his account.

Fillip ran 3.32 and 7.34 this year.

Gjert has 6 boys and 1 girl. The youngest is 6 and another son never attempted running, he was a cross country skier. So “not all of them have trained for it” . Ingrid is planning on following her brothers footsteps as a professional runner. The cheating and divorce beliefs definitely sounds like Gjert.

- Gjert actually told me when I was five or six that if I do what is right, then I can become the world's best runner and win the World Championships.

- I do not know when I started to remember, but he told me early that I could be the best. Everyone else has had a touch of rationality in their reasoning, while he said I could win. Like his son, I looked up to him as a father and believed what he said. Now he was right.

- Had it not been for Henrik and Filip, I would never have run. From the time I was 15 until now, I have had Elisabeth (my fiancé) by my side and it has helped a lot that I am able to do the job that is needed. There is a lot of [sh_t] work, but if it had not been for those around me, I would not have wanted to do this

https://www.aftenposten.no/sport/i/Wjjpvj/jakob-om-gjert-fortalte-meg-da-jeg-var-fem-seks-aar-at-jeg-kunne-bli

Henrik at first wanted to be a skiier, was quite talented too, among the best young ones in Norway. I don't remember for sure why he (and Gjert) changed to running, probably had something to due with money since Gjert was quite poor for most of his life and elite skiing equipment is not cheap. Since it is quite a common thing to follow in the footsteps of your older brothers I'd say it's a fair chance Jakob would have been a skiier too now had things not turned out the way they did.

But the USA can still take pride in Norweigian endurance successes of any kind since one of the most (if not the most) prominent endurance scientist in Norway is an import that moved there from the USA because of a Norweigian woman.

You can all follow Stephen Seiler on Twitter or google to find one of his many podcast interviews in English with endurance podcasters.

https://twitter.com/StephenSeiler

Sam the Clerk wrote:

please please please tell me this is satire

The real satire is the idea that Jakob somehow missed out on your idea of a white privileged suburban American childhood.

I believe that Gjert switched them to running because where they lived was too warm to train properly on snow in winter, and he did not want to move the family. There are videos of them all on roller skis in a parking garage in the early years.

Five is the magic number wrote:

But the USA can still take pride in Norweigian endurance successes of any kind since one of the most (if not the most) prominent endurance scientist in Norway is an import that moved there from the USA because of a Norweigian woman.

https://twitter.com/StephenSeiler

Seiler of course is a German surname, so us Germans can take pride in Jakob's win too.

Stephen is a British forename, so the Brits also take pride.

Idk about everybody else but I would sacrifice my whole childhood for a chance to represent my country let alone win a gold medal in one of the worlds greatest sporting events

He has 2-3 other brothers that aren’t runners at all. They help at times but definitely not runners. There were only 4 that have opted to run

MicahRuns wrote:

Idk about everybody else but I would sacrifice my whole childhood for a chance to represent my country let alone win a gold medal in one of the worlds greatest sporting events

Then why didn't you?

Why does this come up only in running? No one questions total focus in youth on football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, or swimming?

Trucker Hat wrote:

Anyways he spent his childhood running laps with his brothers as his father watched. Sounds like the perfect childhood to me. It wasn't like he torn from his family to go train in a prison camp. It wasn't like the "Father of Mine" song where his only interaction was a 5 dollar bill on his birthday. He spent his childhood running with his family. Im jealous

I'll admit, I'm envious (more than jealous).

Jerry Maguire wrote:

Price to pay for Gold.

Gold and glory last forever.

Your dirty birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese, melting your brain on video games, and collecting participation trophies during your youth is forgettable.

It's about results in this world.

Browns QB Bernie Kosar: "It's a results-oriented world, a results-oriented game."

The Steelers of the '70s were roided and tainted but won 4 world titles. They got theirs--if they die no big deal--they have a dominant place in history.

And even CLE fans should be happy with 2016--they bought that team but they did get that ring and nobody can take that away either.

It really is about results...you are either a winner in life or not, if you are reductionist.