What we miss is not just his name on a start list. We miss the goosebumps he gives us every time he races. We miss the come-from-behind runs – as he did in Oceanside this April – cheering in our living rooms with tears in our eyes and fists raised in triumph as he charges down the final stretch, lifting the finishing banner.
His finishes are the sum total of love, pain, passion, and fire. They remind us why we care so deeply about this sport. We have celebrated him throughout his career – and especially in these moments. And now, in his absence, we miss him.
Healing From Injury
In a recent video titled The Rebuild Begins, Lionel Sanders invites fans into a deeply personal space. Diagnosed with a sacral stress fracture – an injury he traces back to the effects of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) – Sanders speaks with honesty and humility, noting that he’s not going to be back in peak form anytime soon.
Yet his drive remains unshaken. In the video, Sanders outlines a tentative plan to return to racing at the Ironman World Championship in Nice this September. He admits he won’t be ready to contend, but he wants to race. He also shares his longer-term goals: a full return to strength and form over the next six to twelve months, with a focus on the 70.3 World Championship in Nice in 2026, and perhaps most meaningfully, a return to Kona this same year – the race that inspired his journey in the first place.
Staying Connected
For fans, Lionel’s absence has been more than noticed; it has been deeply felt. Especially after his outstanding start to the 2025 season, with wins at both Oceanside and St. George 70.3, the silence feels heavy. His presence, his emotion, his will to fight for every inch – for many Canadians, he’s more than a triathlete. He’s become part of the sport’s beating heart.
We owe deep thanks to his longtime creative partner Talbot Cox, whose filmmaking has helped tell Sanders’ story in a way that few others could. Their weekly videos continue to document this chapter of struggle and rebuilding, keeping fans connected and reminding us that the fire still burns, and the comeback is already underway.
And Sanders is clear: he sees the setback not as an ending, but as a turning point. “It’s not just a rebuild from a stress fracture,” he says in his video. “I truly believe this will go down as one of the most transformative lessons I have learned in my life…because it is so important, so overarching, so fundamental. I believe this is a rebuild of me, truly, as an athlete. Even though I was taking ‘W’s before getting this, I just don’t believe that I’ve reached my potential. And so I believe this is a rebuild to becoming the absolute best athlete I can become.”
The start line waits. And so do we.
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