The requirements of high power density, excellent cycling ability, flexibility and low cost, are of paramount importance and critical to develop flexible lithium ion batteries (LIBs) for wearable instruments. Here we reported the rational design and fabrication of a flexible self-supported lithium ion anode material, which consists of thin MoS2 nanosheets grown on the surfaces of carbon@TiO2 core-shell nanofibers. The resulting hierarchical ternary nanocomposites exhibited high reversible specific capacity (similar to 1460 mA h g(-1) at 100 mA g(-1)), excellent cyclability (little capacity loss even after 1000 cycles) and rate performance (928 mA h g(-1) at 2 A g(-1)) as anode in LIB. Furthermore, the binder-free anode material demonstrated new opportunities for flexible lithium ion batteries. The superior lithium storage performance is derived from the present well-designed hierarchical nanofiber structure and the synergic effect of different components and numerous interfaces. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.