Triathlon superstar Lionel Sanders says he went to a “dark place” to fuel his latest IRONMAN win

Lionel Sanders is a man on a mission this season after making it two wins out of two on the IRONMAN circuit already in 2025.

The Canadian great followed up his win at 70.3 Oceanside by pipping US rival Sam Long at 70.3 St George, and looks set for a successful year.

But Sanders, who made headlines a few months ago by deciding to self-coach and train alone, admits he had to dig deep to achieve his latest success – and find fuel from a special place deep inside him.

Dark angry place

Speaking on his latest YouTube video, embedded below, Sanders said: “I see these races as a spiritual journey, you need to get yourself in the right mindset – physically and mentally – to embark on that spiritual journey [for each race].

“I do have an angry dark place deep inside of me somewhere still and I go in search of it and I call upon that – whether its positive or negative, or healthy or not, but I don’t care because this is how I make a living and this is how I extract maximum potential out of myself.

[Photo credit: Getty Images for IRONMAN]

“So what I did this week was go inside myself – that means keeping to myself, keeping stressors very low and it just means getting in the right mindset.

“Contrast that with St. George in 2023, I got 20 people staying at my house, I’m videoing a race week series that are fun and games with everyone – and don’t get me wrong that’s all great – but for me, and how I race, this is business, this is hardship, this is suffering.”

Done with outside influence

Long actually responded in the comments on the video with a message saying: “Been coaching myself and winning races for years now…good to see you caught on! Great race!”

But Sanders admits in the video he actually came close to ditching his big plan to go it alone after a meeting with Björn Geesmann, who coached Patrick Lange for years.

Sanders said: “I almost chickened out! I started working with Bjorn, Patrick Lange’s coach for many years, and we started chatting. I really like him, he’s a great guy, and I was almost like I don’t know if I can do it on my own.

“Then I said: ‘No, I have to do it. You have to rely now on you. You have the knowledge, you have all of the knowledge you need now to reach maximum potential, you have it all, in all of the three disciplines. You need to stop with these excuses and having this reliance that someone else is going to tell you how to do it because you’ve spent 15 years analysing and messing around with this – you know how to do it.’

“So I said to Björn: ‘I really like you, really appreciate your time, but it’s time for me now to do it on my own.’

“When you fail, you fail because of your power and when you succeed, I shouldn’t say succeed because of your own power because I have learned so much from so many people over the years, but you certainly succeed because of the culmination of what you have learned over the years.”

“Great athletes are great”

Asked why he thinks going it alone is the right way to go, Sanders said: “To answer the question seriously, great athletes are great – a great athlete can work with anyone and be great.

“Coaches absolutely help great athletes express themselves, express their talent, but great athletes are great, I stand by that.”

Sanders never looked back after powering past Magnus Ditlev on the bike at St George – and he says he is just getting started this season.

He said: “I listened to myself and I said: ‘Show me what you’ve got, let’s ride hard man, let’s get to the front of this race because if you want to win any major race you’ve got to get to the front of the race. I don’t care what it takes, you get to the front.’

“I don’t remember the numbers, I just bridged the gap to Magnus and Justin (Riele) and when I got there I was like: ‘Should I start to play things tactically? No, who cares, who cares about these guys, there is no tactics here, the tactic is I’m going to win and I’m going to smash this race and I don’t care.’

“I rode with more urgency, who cares about anybody – if there is no one in front then visual someone in front and go for them. That led me to get off the bike with 2:40 with Sam.

“I’m just getting warmed up”

“On the run, my goal was to go hard to the finish. You have Kristian Blummenfelt running 1:07:20 for 14th place [Oceanside] for absolutely no reason, and I’m letting off the gas at 2km – that’s not the mind of a champion.

“Of course I’d have liked to race Magnus start to finish, but I’m focused on myself, it was a very good performance, probably my best St George performance, and best all-round performance physically and mentally, but I’m just getting warmed up – I’m so motivated, so hungry, I can’t wait.

“With certainty, I have room to improve, I’m swimming 25 minutes, I know I can 24 minutes, I’m going to swim that, I have a minute to go there.

“On the bike, I know I can push more power, I know I can ride the road better and I know that I can continue to hone my position, so there is time there.

“And on the run, I didn’t run well in St George, I felt bad that run, quite bad – I’m going to get fitter on the bike and make that run feel better next time.”