Inside the Mind of Jakob Ingebrigtsen: The Guardian's Sean Ingle on Talent, Obsession and a Record-Breaking Track Season

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Our Applied shows are normally exclusive to our Supporters. However, the 2026 track and field season has been so good, and given us so many threads to follow, that we've opened up the first part of this one to everyone! The Guardian's Sean Ingle joins us to look back on a year of 17 world records, from Sabastian Sawe's sub-two hour marathon and Josh Kerr's mile record to 17-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus becoming the youngest ever world champion, and a women's 800m that kept on giving all summer. Sean gives us his inside view on the Ultimate Championships, why World Athletics plans a world championships every year after 2030, why London lost out to Nairobi, why a doping-tainted marathon world record still stands, the brand wars behind the scenes, and whether a skin suit could ever be worth 2.5% over 800m.

Then, exclusively for our Supporters, the show becomes a journey into the mind of one of sport's most fascinating characters. Sean spent a day with Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen at his home in Norway, and shares what he learned about his upbringing (serious training from the age of seven), how his talent was shaped, his relationship with running, and the principles that drive him, from 180km weeks and no days off, to his rivalry with Kerr.

Links

• The article on the Ingebrigtsen brothers that we discuss in our exclusive segment (full article available to members on Discourse)
• Sean's two pieces on Jakob Ingebrigtsen. First, at home with Jakob and "obsession" he feeds
• And the second instalment - 10 lessons from one of the world's most beguiling athletes
• Epstein's Sports Gene - the best book on nurturing talent (and nature) you'll ever read
• The paper that comes up in Sean's Talent discussion, showing that "successful juniors and successful seniors are largely two disparate populations"

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