Katie Ledecky is one of the most prolific athletes in the world.

In swimming, she’s in an elite circle with fellow Team USA superstars Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, and Natalie Coughlin. On a global stage, she is in the same conversations as Sarah Sjöström and Adam Peaty. She is dominant across the spectrum and holds the title ‘fastest of all time’ in a number of different events.


She is a five-time Olympic gold medalist and 14-time world champion–the most in history for a female swimmer. She is the current world-record holder in the women’s 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter Freestyle (long course). She also holds the fastest-ever times in the women’s 500-, 1000-, and 1,650-yard Freestyle events.

Ledecky’s 10 individual gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships and 14 combined individual titles at the Olympics and World Aquatics Championships are records in women’s swimming. She recently started her professional career, and in her first competition out of the NCAA circuit, she turned out the fastest times of the year and broke a world record in her signature event, the 1,500 meter Freestyle, with a time of 15 minutes, 20.48 seconds!

Check out our analysis of Katie’s freestyle technique!

Training Schedule

Katie Ledecky is world-class in every Freestyle event from the 200 up to the Mile. She is most dominant in the longer events, and as you might imagine, there is a deep base of training that supports this diverse distance lineup.

“I know what I’m doing everyday… I have a set schedule.” – Katie Ledecky

In a recent interview with Jeff Cummings, Ledecky overviews what her pool training program looks like at Stanford. It should be noted that this does not include the strength and conditioning component of her training regiment. Stanford is a place she’s called home for the last two years since starting school at the University in the Fall of 2016.

  • Monday (PM) – 400/500 group
  • Tuesday (AM) – Mile Set
  • Tuesday (PM) – Kick/Swim for 100-200 focus
  • Wednesday (AM) – Backstroke
  • Wednesday (PM) – Swim
  • Thursday (AM) – 200 Tempo
  • Thursday (PM) – 400 IM Group
  • Friday (AM) – Team Kick Set
  • Friday (PM) – Buckets/Resistance
  • Saturday – “It’s a catch all. You don’t know what you’re getting, either a test set or threshold set.”

At the 2016 ASCA World Clinic, her coach at the time, Bruce Gemmell gave an overview of just how impressive some of Ledecky’s training workouts are. Below is a set from May of 2016 that she had recently completed and the times she posted on each rep of the set.

“It’s nice to get into a routine. You know how to prepare your mind going into each practice.” – Katie Ledecky

12 x 200s Freestyle (SCY)

  • 4 x 200 @ 2:10 (avg 1:56’s)
  • 4 x 200 @ 2:05 (avg 1:52’s)
  • 4 x 200 @ 2:00 (1:48, 1:49, 1:48, 1:47.4)

These are incredibly impressive times. You can only imagine what times she would hold on the same set or even something comparable now–two years older and swimming faster than ever. Ledecky credits her consistency to her challenging training and the countless hours of hard work she puts into it.

“I’ve been doing a lot of 100s going :59 over and over.” – Katie Ledecky

Her 1,500m Freestyle World Record at the recent USA Swimming TYR Pro Series certainly was a result of the confidence she’s built up over the last few weeks of hard training.

“1:01s are good to be hitting for Mile days.” – Katie Ledecky

Katie Ledecky is in a class of her own. On our recent #AskASwimPro show, we discussed her record breaking performances at the USA Swimming TYR Pro Series in Indy. You can checkout our analysis below:

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2 Comments

  1. Bryan Shapiro on

    Katie is probably the most gifted, hardest swimmer in history. Beat a 20+ year old record set by Janet Evans at Stanford by? 30 seconds.
    I suspect that her 1500 M record will hold for decades, or longer………..seems hard to believe….
    I’ll see her swim the 800 M soon………her training schedule probably makes her “untouchable”….we’ll see………
    Thanks for allowing me to be an observer to extraordinary performance/talent.

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