It’s rare that a person gets an opportunity to represent one’s country on an international level. It’s very rare that two brothers who share the same blood do that. But you know what’s rare of the rarest. Three brothers doing that and not just representing but also winning gold and making their country proud. Today I’d be talking about Henrik Ingebrigtsen, the big brother. His brothers Filip and Jakob are his partners in crime. I don’t know it’s up to you to decide whether or not it’s a crime that all 3 of them are bringing gold home from some of the biggest international sporting tournaments. Henrik started his professional career as a runner back in 2008 when he participated in European Cross-Country Championship held in Brussels, Belgium. Although his first attempt to compete in such a big event was unfortunate and despite ranking 2nd as a team, he only finished 23rd as an individual. But as it’s a general saying in life “With persistent efforts, one can do anything”, this truly happened for Henrik when he as a team won gold for the first time in 2011 and subsequently ranked 1st and brought home gold as an individual in European Championship held in Helsinki Finland in the 1500-meter category. Thereafter he also won gold in European Cross-Country Championship held in Budapest, Hungary in the same year and another in the European U23 held in Finland.
Recently he participated in an exercise race organized by an organization particularly performing cancer-related work. It was held for raising awareness related to cancer and cancer patients. All three brothers Henrik, Filip, and Jakob participated in the event. In the race event, Jakob finished in 17 minutes and 4 seconds, while Filip was 24 seconds behind and Henrik was 1 second behind Filip. Henrik as a big brother is the boss of the team and has been providing his brothers, constant support and motivation. He said during the event “Jakob will have a long career. Very long.”. He feels taking the World Cup and Olympic gold is not what Jacob should limit himself to. He says it’s just the beginning and he has to establish himself as the world’s best runner and win not just one or two gold medals but multiple, so that it’s unfathomable for one to think of coming any closer to him.
