Category profile
- Dominance
- 90
- Peak
- 92
- Longevity
- 94
- Honours
- 91
- Statistics
- 93
Career timeline · Major golds per season
| Season | Major golds per season | Share of career |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 1589 | |
| 1994 | 1580 | |
| 1995 | 1571 | |
| 1996 | 1568 | |
| 1997 | 1566 | |
| 1998 | 1565.11 | |
| 1999 | 1570 | |
| 2000 | 1573 | |
| 2001 | 1580 | |
| 2002 | 7600 | |
| 2003 | 7495 | |
| 2004 | 7439 |
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 Haile Gebrselassie ranks #4 in Athletics
Haile Gebrselassie ranks 4th among Athletics athletes on GOAT Rank and 41st of 1063 across every sport in the index. The published GOAT Score of 91.9 is the weighted result of five verified category scores: Dominance 90, Peak 92, Longevity 94, Honours 91, Statistics 93. 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 1992–2015 with 12 documented competitive seasons. The strongest single season in that series is 2002, which sets the Peak component at 92. Longevity is the defining strength of the profile at 94 out of 100, and it carries 20% of the final score. The underlying career record includes olympic golds 2, world championship golds 4, world records 27, 10,000 m best (s) 1565.11.
Immediately ahead sits Allyson Felix on 90.0, a gap of -1.9 points. Directly behind is Jackie Joyner-Kersee on 92.1. 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.
Haile Gebrselassie GOAT Score explained
- Dominance90/100 · weight 25%
- Measures how far Gebrselassie stood above the field while competing. Scored 90/100 against the full Athletics cohort.
- Peak92/100 · weight 20%
- Rates the best sustained stretch of the career, centred on 2002. Scored 92/100.
- Longevity94/100 · weight 20%
- Rewards staying at that level over time: 23 years of competition and 12 recorded seasons. Scored 94/100.
- Honours91/100 · weight 20%
- Counts documented titles, majors and awards in the verified record. Scored 91/100.
- Statistics93/100 · weight 15%
- Normalises the raw career numbers against everyone in the sport reporting the same metric. Scored 93/100.
Top Gebrselassie comparisons
Haile Gebrselassie — frequently asked
- Is Haile Gebrselassie the GOAT?
- Not on the current data. Haile Gebrselassie ranks 4th in Athletics with a GOAT Score of 91.9, behind Carl Lewis on 93.1.
- What is Haile Gebrselassie's GOAT Score?
- 91.9 out of 100. It is the weighted sum of Dominance 90 (25%), Peak 92 (20%), Longevity 94 (20%), Honours 91 (20%), Statistics 93 (15%), computed from the verified career record.
- Where does Haile Gebrselassie rank all time?
- 41st of 1063 eligible athletes in the cross-sport index, and 4th within Athletics.
- Haile Gebrselassie vs Allyson Felix: who ranks higher?
- Haile Gebrselassie, on 91.9 against Allyson Felix's 90.0 — a margin of 1.9 points.