Jakob Ingebrigtsen believes his Olympic 1,500 meters title defense will be a breeze as long as he avoids illness and injury on the way to Paris, the Norwegian said on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old won gold in stunning fashion at the Tokyo Games, which were postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19. He passed Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot on the final lap and broke the tape in an Olympic record of 3 hours. , 28 minutes, 32 seconds.
“Obviously the Tokyo Olympics were very different, I would imagine, than the upcoming Games in Paris, without spectators, lots of testing and rules with COVID,” Ingebrigtsen told European Athletics’ ‘Ignite’ podcast.
“If I don’t get injured and I don’t get sick, I think it will be a walk in the park (in Paris).”
He took gold in the 5,000 meters at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and again a year later in Budapest, but was not so lucky in the 1,500 meters.
Britain’s Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman pushed Ingebrigtsen to second on the metric mile podium in 2023 and 2022 respectively, after a pair of notable setbacks.
“Ultimately it is a competition in which everyone does their best to win, but sometimes not everything goes as planned for everyone,” said Ingebrigtsen.
