After a brilliant indoor season, an Achilles injury has sidelined Jakob Ingebrigsten for the entire summer, but he’s back on track—literally—making a big push for the world championships in Tokyo.
The countdown is on for Jakob Ingebrigsten’s highly-anticipated return to the track, although even the man himself doesn’t seem to know when and where exactly that will take place. He has not competed since the Indoor World Championships in Scotland in March, where he claimed double-gold in the 1,500 and 3,000. A few weeks later he announced an Achilles issue on his Instagram feed, and has been quiet—relatively speaking—for the past three months.
Jakob Seems Optimistic
Jakob’s most recent Instagram post indicates that the time is “nigh,” and all we know is that it won’t be at the upcoming Diamond League meets in Silesia and Brussels. Without scoring any Diamond League meets this year, that also means the Diamond League final in Zurich is out of the question, so all signs point to the World Champs in Tokyo in mid-September as his first major race since March, unless there’s another setback.
If everything does remain on track—meaning that Jakob is able to stay on the track in training—he’ll head to Tokyo looking to defend his 5,000-meter world title from 2023 and claim the outdoor 1,500 world title for the very first time. Whether or not he can contend with a very deep 1,500 field that includes Josh Kerr, who kicked past Jakob for the world title two years ago, will be one of the biggest storylines heading into a world championships that will be full of them.
That’s if Jakob chooses to throw his hat in the ring for the 1,500. Even after a magnificent start to 2025, he’s realistic about where his fitness currently is relative to the guys who have been competing all season long. So much so that he even joked about a return to the 3,000-meter steeplechase in a recent YouTube video (see below), which is part two of his “Injury Diaries” series. Given the stress of the water jumps on tendons like the Achilles, it’s safe to assume that he’s kidding—even if you don’t speak Norwegian—but it’s also a realization that maybe he can’t be as competitive as he’d like to be in perhaps the sport’s most competitive event.
Some more of the translation from his latest video provides optimism for Tokyo: “[I had] a very good track session just a couple of days ago, so [that’s] definitely pointing in the right direction, but still a lot more to improve and a lot more things that need to be done for me to be 100% prepared for [the] world championships. I think the next two, three weeks we will get a lot of answers in what type of training I have been doing, what I can do and also, in terms of fitness, how fast I can run.”
Ingebrigtsen Training for Injury Recovery
It’s certainly not the season he had in mind, but he also seems to be taking it in perfect stride. After all, if you’re going to get injured, why not have it happen the year after the Olympics while you have a young child at home. He seems very content to spend most of the summer at home in Sandnes, on Norway’s southwestern coast, where CNN recently caught him aqua-jogging in his home pool and otherwise taking it easy. For Jakob. Easy still means multiple sessions a day.
Even with a toddler and multiple workouts and rehab sessions each day, that still leaves plenty of downtime, as Jakob frequently points out. His filling that time in ways both old and new. Of course there are his cars, which he loves more than his medals and takes meticulous care of. Last fall, Jakob took viewers on a complete tour of his garage, including his most recent purchase, a purple Porsche 911 GT3 RS 992, that he seems particularly fond of.
He’s even spending some of his extra free time focused on running—something he’s eschewed in the past—launching the Spring Run Club alongside brothers Henrik and Filip. The club has both elite and amateur elements, aimed at giving budding Norwegian elites better access to facilities and coaching, while encouraging as many amateur runners from around the globe to get more involved in the sport. The best part about Jakob is that when he officially makes his decision on Tokyo, we’ll all be the first to know. Make sure to follow him on Instagram for the latest news on his comeback.
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