Category profile
- Dominance
- 89
- Peak
- 93
- Longevity
- 88
- Honours
- 90
- Statistics
- 92
Career timeline · Major golds per season
| Season | Major golds per season | Share of career |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 1585 | |
| 2004 | 1580.4 | |
| 2005 | 1577.53 | |
| 2006 | 1580 | |
| 2007 | 1585 | |
| 2008 | 1590 | |
| 2009 | 1595 | |
| 2010 | 7400 | |
| 2011 | 7350 | |
| 2012 | 7299 |
Data sources
- World Athletics
- Olympedia
- Olympics.com
Figures come from public records and are normalised per sport. See the methodology for category weights. Method
Why Kenenisa Bekele ranks #16 in Athletics
Kenenisa Bekele ranks 16th among Athletics athletes on GOAT Rank and 110th of 1063 across every sport in the index. The published GOAT Score of 90.3 is the weighted result of five verified category scores: Dominance 89, Peak 93, Longevity 88, Honours 90, Statistics 92. Those categories are normalised against the full Athletics reference universe of 309 records, not a shortlist, so the position reflects the whole sport rather than a handful of famous names.
The record covers 2001–2023 with 10 documented competitive seasons. The strongest single season in that series is 2010, which sets the Peak component at 93. Peak is the defining strength of the profile at 93 out of 100, and it carries 20% of the final score. The underlying career record includes olympic golds 3, world championship golds 5, world cross-country golds 11, 5000 m best (s) 757.35.
Immediately ahead sits Anita Włodarczyk on 89.9, a gap of -0.4 points. Directly behind is Javier Sotomayor on 89.9. The position moves whenever the verified record moves: new titles, new seasons or a corrected source all feed straight back into the same formula, and every change is dated on this profile.
Kenenisa Bekele GOAT Score explained
- Dominance89/100 · weight 25%
- Measures how far Bekele stood above the field while competing. Scored 89/100 against the full Athletics cohort.
- Peak93/100 · weight 20%
- Rates the best sustained stretch of the career, centred on 2010. Scored 93/100.
- Longevity88/100 · weight 20%
- Rewards staying at that level over time: 22 years of competition and 10 recorded seasons. Scored 88/100.
- Honours90/100 · weight 20%
- Counts documented titles, majors and awards in the verified record. Scored 90/100.
- Statistics92/100 · weight 15%
- Normalises the raw career numbers against everyone in the sport reporting the same metric. Scored 92/100.
Top Bekele comparisons
Kenenisa Bekele — frequently asked
- Is Kenenisa Bekele the GOAT?
- Not on the current data. Kenenisa Bekele ranks 16th in Athletics with a GOAT Score of 90.3, behind Carl Lewis on 93.1.
- What is Kenenisa Bekele's GOAT Score?
- 90.3 out of 100. It is the weighted sum of Dominance 89 (25%), Peak 93 (20%), Longevity 88 (20%), Honours 90 (20%), Statistics 92 (15%), computed from the verified career record.
- Where does Kenenisa Bekele rank all time?
- 110th of 1063 eligible athletes in the cross-sport index, and 16th within Athletics.
- Kenenisa Bekele vs Anita Włodarczyk: who ranks higher?
- Kenenisa Bekele, on 90.3 against Anita Włodarczyk's 89.9 — a margin of 0.4 points.