{"id":535483,"date":"2024-09-12T01:23:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T08:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=535483"},"modified":"2025-04-03T09:42:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T16:42:58","slug":"training-sets-from-the-past-the-stunning-work-of-17-year-old-ian-thorpe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/training-sets-from-the-past-the-stunning-work-of-17-year-old-ian-thorpe\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback Thursday: Training Sets From the Past – The Stunning Work of 17-Year-Old Ian Thorpe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Training Sets From the Past: The Stunning Work of 17-Year-Old Ian Thorpe<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the late 1990s, the name of Australian teenager Ian Thorpe<\/strong> became known around the world. He first captured a world title in the 400-meter freestyle at the 1998 World Championships<\/a>. In the years that followed, world records and Olympic titles were added to his resume.<\/p>\n

More, he produced times that were previously thought to be out of reach – at least for a long while. Heck, his best of 3:40.08 in the 400 freestyle still sits No. 2 all-time, .01 off the world record of Germany’s Paul Biedermann from the 2009 World Championships. Biedermann’s mark was recorded while wearing a fully polyurethane suit, which was eventually banned.<\/p>\n

From the Swimming World archive, here is a look at some of the training sets logged by Thorpe as a 17-year-old phenom.<\/p>\n

1. 12 x 100m pull on 1:00. He averaged 57-58 seconds.<\/p>\n

2. 5 x 100m kick (with a kick board) on 4:00. All five were done at 1:01.<\/p>\n

3. 7 x 200m swim on 5:00. He averaged 1:51. The last one was sub-1:50.<\/p>\n

4. 20 x 400m swim done as 5 x (4 x 400):<\/p>\n