At 14 years old, Ian Thorpe became the youngest male eve to represent Australia. Ian won the 400 meter freestyle race at the 1998 World Championships making him the youngest individual world champion.
Ian went on to win five gold medals, three silvers and one bronze at the Olympics.
The development system Ian went through with his coach Doug Frost looked like:
Swim volume per week / per year
- 9 Years old: one session per week with a total of 2-3km per week
- 10 Years old: 3 sessions per week with a total of 6-8km per week
- 11 Years old: 3 sessions per week with a total of 7-9km per week
- 12 Years old: 5 sessions per week with a total of 20-25km per week
- 13 Years old: 6 sessions per week with a total of 40-50km per week
- 14 Years old: 8 sessions per week with a total of 40-70km per week
- 15 Years old: 10 sessions per week with a total of 50-80km per week
- 16 years old: 10 sessions per week with a total of 50-90km per week
Ian’s swim times per age
- 9 years old: 50m on 0:33:11 – 100m on 1:12:45
- 10 years old: 50m on 0:31:59 – 100m on 1:09:92 – 200m on 2:48:00
- 11 years old: 50m on 0:29:69 – 100m on 1:06:22 – 200m on 2:22:75
- 12 years old: 50m on 0:27:46 – 100m on 0:58:81 – 200m on 2:04:60
- 13 years old: 50m on 0:25:75 – 100m on 0:55:83 – 200m on 1:58:50
- 14 years old: 50m on 0:24:78 – 100m on 0:52:49 – 200m on 1:50:07 – 400m on 3:49:60
- 15 years old: 100m on 0:52:49 – 200mon 1:46:70 – 400m on 3:44:35
- 16 years old: 100m on 0:49:71 – 200m on 1:46 – 400m on 3:41:83
Dryland Training
While Ian did do dry land training throughout these years, it really wasn’t till he switched coached in 2002 to coach Tracey Menzies that there was more of a focus on dryland strength training.
TRAIN SMOOTH 
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