Lionel Sanders confirms new coach

Earlier this week we reported that Lionel Sanders had talked about a new coach on his latest YouTube video. Well now we have the answer as to who that might be – in that video he also talked about a new social media platform he would be starting up, and it wasn’t long before that gleaned the answer on who the new coach is – Gustav Iden’s older brother, Mikal.

Sanders confirmed that on the new Discord page yesterday:

An accomplished triathlete himself, Mikal won Ironman Talinn a few years ago. He’s been coaching for a few years, too – in addition to his own coaching that he does in Haugesund, he’s worked as the assistant coach to Arild Tveiten for the Norwegian national team.

Related: Lionel Sanders parts ways with coach David Tilbury-Davis

In August Sanders reported that he would no longer be working with David Tulbury-Davis. The two had worked together leading into Sanders’ most successful Kona race – his runner-up finish in 2017. Shortly after that, though, Sanders parted ways with the British coach. The reconnected again a few years ago, but in August the relationship ended again.

At that point Sanders indicated he would be coaching himself, but in his video earlier this week he talked about now having a “team” who would be making all his training decisions. Presumably Mikal Iden will be making a lot of those.

“I don’t write the training,” he said in the video. “I’m not in charge of most things. I’m just an athlete. It has taken me 10 years to get to this point where I trust other people to help, to provide their expertise, but I am just going to listen … it’s working, I believe in the process … It’s time to employ people who are the experts in the various fields who will allow me more time and energy to execute their expert thinking. So that’s what I intend to do and I intend to get to the St. George World Champs competitive with the best guys in the world.”