Where did you get to "hiring", I did not hear anything suggesting anything beyond Ari just wanting to train with him and agreeing to move to Tuscon.
There was certainly no mention of any financial arrangement.

Or is this just baseless assumption to stir the LS love/hate pot?

^this

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Cheers, Ray

In Ari's video he says Lionel is paying his living expenses

then I stand corrected. I don't follow Ari's youtubes

I watched that video too. My assumption was that he is letting Ari stay in a room in his house for free. Maybe he buys a lot of the food, but I doubt he's buying much else for him. I think it's a great idea. I bet this type of arrangement is pretty common among the top guys. Get some young pro that you get along great with to come hang out and smash each other. Young guy gets a huge benefit of seeing how a top pro trains and the top pro gets a fun training partner that keeps him motivated. Didn't Jan have Nick Kastelein,? I think Macca did a lot of training with Bozzone.

This is awesome for Ari! I can't help but think that a young ITU style kid who can mop Lionel in pool might be better suited, but I get this and celebrate the idea.

There's plenty of high schoolers who could drag Lionel through swim workouts. Not quite as many 13 high 5k runners that are also doing 70.3 and Ironman training.

This seems similar to Lange spending a ton of time training with pro cyclists.

Ari Klau is a beast when it comes to running and he pushes himself pretty hard. I've been following him from the day 1 and his journey is different from others' I think. He's doing different things in a betterway, so let's see what happens this year.

I was in a similar running shape as him back in my college days. His engine has got to be HUGE, tons of untapped potential there. Threshold pace of probably a bit over 5:00? Heck I think Kipchoge was around 4:45. If he can stay patient and healthy I think he's situated nicely to have a pretty successful career. He seems to understand that the process is more important than the result at this point.

Ari commented that he lives less than 2 miles down the road from Lionel so it must be a separate living accommodation.

Definitely not trying to stir any type of pot! Ari himself describes the arrangement as a job. The title of his video was "Driving 38 hours for My new Job" In a later one he says Lionel is covering all of his expenses. I haven't heard of any other pro doing this so I was curious. Personally I am a fan of both of these athletes.

You weren't corrected, but rather you got checked.

I really wish people wouldn't get so defensive on here. Everyone has a right to state an opinion and some of them are fact based.

You don't need to explain. If people would take the time to watch it themselves instead of shooting off about someone being attacked again, they would see it isn't true and you're just discussing what you watched.

Yeah it's been ironed out already but Ari said Lionel was helping with living expenses in his last video. Ari is making some money on his own through YouTube/small sponsors/donations -- Lionel is probably chipping in rent + maybe some food & gets a training partner who can run as well as almost any pro triathlete (at least when fresh). So Lionel gets a bump in running workouts & Ari gets to learn from & train with one of the best athletes in our sport. Seems like a lot of the top pros train in group settings. Lionel has also gotten a lot better on the swim & can bike with almost anyone so having someone to elevate his running is huge. He's already solid there but so many big races are being decided on the run now. Seems like swim/bike packs form in almost every pro race & that the top guys come into T2 together or close together.

We'll see how long this lasts for. Ari has been bouncing around a ton & said in the same video that he's spending the summer in Europe. Too good of an opportunity to pass up on with Lionel but he did leave a good looking situation in NH with JP Elite. That's one of the few elite training groups (daily training environment) in the US. Had guys in that group who could push him on the swim/bike. Interested to see if he makes big jumps with Lionel & how he stacks up against former teammates if they end up in a future race together.

Ari's experiment has been a cool one. In, what, a year (?) he has gone from sub-elite post collegiate runner to pro triathlete. Earned his pro card pretty quickly. Did well at AG Nationals. Finished towards the back in his 1st 70.3 but then mid-pack in his 2nd without a strong run. Has a ton of room to improve. Would think he can find his way to some prize money in 70.3's this summer.

So Klau is there for the most part to pace Lionel's run workouts and not providing him much on the bike or in the pool. Lionel previously had Corey Bellemore ripping run workouts for him.

Can't help but think a pure swimmer would be good for Lionel, but I can understand how he relates to Ari a lot professionally and seems to be a great guy to have around.

I would also add, Maybe LS just likes the guy. It seems they have a good relationship since he was using Lionel's bike, wetsuit ETC for his first tri. My dad grew up racing motocross, and when I started racing, my dad used to pay a couple riders entry fees at races and help work on their bikes. Basically got nothing out of it, just his way of giving back and helping out people he liked.

if that is the criterion, i've had that arrangement with a lot of athletes ;-) notably almost every up-and-coming pro from mexico and brazil during the late-80s and early-90s. but just the guys. not fernanda.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

It wouldn't be a help.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

I think his Aqua Bears group is giving him plenty of faster swimmers if that is even a benefit and on deck coaching to a degree. Not sure how a pure swimmer would improve on that (if help at all).

I think Ari gives him a rabbit on the run and Lionel gives Ari a rabbit on the bike. On top of that, as others have mentioned, they get along and both like to work hard.

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

Personally I think Lionel is in a good place with Mikal Iden, Justin Slade and Ari Klau. It should pay dividends in 2022.

agreed; my feeling is that lionel is already doing fine on the bike. as phil gaimon said there are relatively few people who could push him, except for when it comes to the technical stuff (where lionel sucks). so maybe next he needs a belgian 'cross champ as a room-mate? on the swim he's got a good coach and the company of a squad if he wants it. so having a great runner to push him is a nice missing piece.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

How is this seen as an insult or slight? It’s smart on his part. Ben True hired a training partner and he wasn’t even under a sponsor. Sanders seemed to justify it in one of the videos talking about how “in this era you can’t make it alone…” I imagine that even though he doesn’t have deals with Mercedes or TAG Heur, Sanders has to be doing well selling juice cleanses.

I would agree. I think it’s more about helping out an up and comer. Kudos to the Colonel!

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Let food be thy medicine...

If I had to choose a training partner Ari would be pretty awesome. He seems like a great guy and he is one hell of a runner. There's only a few triathletes in the world who could push Lionel on the bike and he already swims with lots of great swimmers so finding someone who he gets along with and is an excellent runner was probably his focus. I can't wait to see the upcoming videos. This is gonna be awesome.