Henrik Ingebrigtsen had no way of knowing that he was about to help shape the future of track-and-field fashion when, as a teenager in Norway nearly 20 years ago, he ordered a form-fitting, one-piece speedsuit from Nike that was designed for 100- and 200-metre sprinters.
The twist was that Ingebrigtsen
Ingebrigtsen, though, had always enjoyed the stretchy apparel he had worn as a cross-country skier, and he thought the speedsuit would be a fun way for him to express himself on the track.
“Mostly because I thought it looked cool,” he said in a telephone interview.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Ingebrigtsen’s influence has been on full display. No longer satisfied with the drab garb of the profession — loose-fitting singlets, side-split shorts — half of the runners in the men’s 1500-metre final were clad in sleek, thigh-length speedsuits made from materials like polyester and elastane.
Among them: Cole Hocker, the American who shocked a full stadium to become Olympic champion, and Josh Kerr of Britain, who placed second. Ingebrigtsen’s younger brother Jakob, who had hoped to defend his Olympic title and has seldom worn anything but speedsuits during competitions, finished fourth.
“I feel honoured, in a way, that I’m recognised as the one who started it all,” said Henrik Ingebrigtsen, 33, who has an old photo of himself and Jakob, who was only 10 at the time, wearing sunglasses and matching speedsuits. “It kind of became our thing.”
Now, their thing belongs to the track world — and even to Jakob’s chief rivals.
“I think it makes you feel more like a superhero,” Henrik Ingebrigtsen said. “There is this feeling of, ‘This is my outfit, and I’m here to conquer the world.’”
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Advertise with NZME.Kyree King, a member of the US Olympic 4x100-metre relay pool, said he viewed it as a sign of respect that 1500-metre runners were essentially emulating sprinters.
“They’re running crazy times out there, so they’re damn near sprinters anyway,” he said.
Olli Hoare, an Olympic 1500-metre runner from Australia, became a speedsuit enthusiast by accident. In February 2021, Hoare was preparing for an indoor race on Staten Island in New York when his sponsor, the apparel brand On, shipped him two uniforms. The first was a speedsuit. The second was a mistake: a women’s outfit, complete with high-hipped, bun-hugger shorts.
Hoare had always been a shorts-and-singlet guy, but he suddenly found himself without much of a choice. He tried on the speedsuit, to rave reviews from his coach, Dathan Ritzenhein.
“You actually look pretty good,” Ritzenhein told him.
More important, Hoare felt good. He set an Australian record.
“I like it when everything is locked in,” Hoare said. “It just feels smooth.”
Yared Nuguse, one of Hoare’s training partners, wore a speedsuit for the opening round of the 1500 metres at the US Olympic trials — and then ditched it for the remainder of the meet. He won the Olympic bronze medal on Wednesday by keeping it old-school in a singlet and shorts.
“I think it’s a body-sensation thing,” said Nuguse, who stated he does not particularly enjoy the feeling of “things touching my body”.
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Advertise with NZME.Similarly, Sam Prakel, an American who won the bronze medal in the mile at last year’s world road running championships, recalled trying one on at home. That was the first and last time he wore one.
“Just looking at myself in the mirror, I couldn’t take myself seriously,” he said.
And some runners have more concrete reasons for avoiding the look. Craig Engels, an American 1500-metre runner who placed ninth at the Olympic trials, was happy to explain. “Some of us don’t have enough cake,” he said, referencing his less-than-ample backside. “That might be me.”
Engels typically wears a singlet and split shorts, but he felt brash enough to wear a speedsuit at the 2018 world indoor championships. The zipper that ran down the front broke.
“It was down to here,” he said, pointing to his navel. “My pecs are too big.”
He went with a regular uniform in the final, placing seventh.
Joey Berriatua, an American steeplechaser who placed seventh at the Olympic trials, usually wears a singlet and shorts. “I’ve got nice legs, so I need to show them off,” he said.
But he also acknowledged some of the practical advantages of the speedsuit. “It’s great if you’ve got lower back problems,” he said. “It keeps your butt nice and tucked.”
Berriatua remembers the first time he saw a speedsuit on a middle-distance runner, largely because it made such an impression. He was 16 and in the stands for a pro track meet at Stanford University, where he was riveted by the presence of a Norwegian 1500-metre runner with slicked-back hair, wraparound sunglasses and a one-piece speedsuit.
“Everyone was like, Who is this guy?” Berriatua recalled.
Henrik Ingebrigtsen broke the national record in the event that day, finishing in 3m 36.39s. By then, the speedsuit was an indispensable part of his race-day routine.
“You sit in the call room,” he said, “you put on your spikes, your suit and your sunglasses, and it’s that last bit of preparation that makes it all feel final.”
A few months later, at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the Norwegian runner had to exchange his Nike speedsuit for one that was made by Puma, his country’s longtime apparel sponsor, which turned out to be problematic. He was not enamoured with the fit.
“It felt like jean shorts,” he said.
He used scissors to remove some mesh along the inseam, and then had a friend sew the shorts back together. But with spandex-type material, his homespun brand of tailoring was imperfect — “You need elastic stitching,” he said — and the crotch ripped when he tried to put the uniform on a few minutes before the 1500-metre final.
He had a couple of immediate thoughts. The first was that he was glad he was wearing underwear. The second, he said, was that he was aware that “the whole world” was still about to see the broad contours of an intimate part of his anatomy. But he had a race to run.
“So I just had to tune it out,” he said.
He placed fifth, setting another national record in the process. The ripped uniform and the boxer shorts that spared him from additional embarrassment now reside in a sports museum outside Oslo.
“Proper presentation and everything!” he said. “I made history that day.”
Speedsuits are now being worn for even longer distances. Jakob Ingebrigtsen will be among the runners in one for the first round of the men’s 5000 metres.
And beyond that? Consider Rory Linkletter, who said his goal was to become “the first person to ever run a marathon in a speedsuit”, though he will not be doing so on Sunday when he represents Canada in the Olympic men’s marathon.
“I’ve just got to figure out if it’s possible,” Linkletter said. “If they could guarantee no chafing and guaranteed comfort, I would feel emboldened to try it.”
Linkletter, who caught the speedsuit bug over the winter when he ran his first sub-4-minute mile in one, said he would need to work out how he would handle “an emergency bathroom situation” during the marathon.
“You couldn’t exactly jump into a Porta Potti and take off your speedsuit,” he said. “For now, it’s hanging up in my closet, waiting to be dusted off for another opportunity.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Scott Cacciola.
© 2024 The New York Times
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