Jakob Ingebritsen, the 2021 Olympic champion in the 1500 m, failed to win any medals in this discipline at the Paris Olympics. Anyone who is interested in running has seen the race. The Norwegian athlete took the lead early on but could not hold it until the end and was overtaken by three of his rivals on the home straight.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen misses podium in shocking men’s 1,500m final

Much has been written about this race. Was Ingebritsen overconfident? Arrogant? Was his training inadequate? Does this result show the limitations of the “Norwegian training method”? Was he so focused on beating his rival, eventual silver medalist Josh Kerr, that he foolishly ignored all the other contenders in the race? Whatever the reason, for most commentators the story is basically simple. Jakob failed – for whatever reason – and the others took advantage of his failure and succeeded.

I’m not buying it.

If you look at the list of finishers and their results, you’ll see the following: 1st place = personal best, Olympic record, American record; 2nd place = personal best and national record; 3rd place = personal best; 5th place = personal best; 6th place = national record and personal best; 7th place = season best; 8th place = national record and personal best; 9th place = personal best. Pretty much the only top 10 finisher of the race who did NOT run a season best was Ingebritsen herself, and he still ran a time that beat his gold medal performance from Tokyo.

This race was a success – a success of the true ideals of the sport. To run further, faster, and higher than ever before. To push our known limits. Ingebritsen pushed those limits – he was at world record pace with 200m to go and still in the lead with less than 100m to go – and challenged the others to keep up. Ingebritsen went from the front, challenging the field, demanding his best to beat them. If you weren’t willing to push yourself to a place you’ve never been, then you weren’t going to win this race. Yes, he fell dramatically short, but if we don’t strive for places we’ve never been, then we’ll never get there. Honestly, what more could you ask for from an Olympic champion at the Olympics?

To give it a triathlon twist, consider Hayden Wilde’s brave move in the triathlon, where he pulled away from his rival Alex Yee, but then faded in the last hundred meters. Unlike Ingebritson, however, Wilde was able to take the silver medal.

What does this mean for runners (and triathletes) like us who will never be in an Olympic final? I think it’s simple. Sometimes it’s OK to fly closer to the sun than we think is safe. Maybe we’ll crash and burn up, but maybe we’ll fly farther than we ever dreamed possible.

Darian Silk is a clinical exercise physiologist based in Toronto who trains endurance athletes of all types. Read more about Darian here or email him at [email protected]. You can also view his TrainingPeaks profile here.