GGOATRANK
🇺🇸
Swimming · Distance freestyle · United States

Janet Evans

1986–1996 · Her 800 m freestyle world record stood for nearly 19 years.

Retired
Ranking model

100% titles, statistics, dominance, longevity and global competition depth.

Pure sporting data
83.6
Cultural & brand footprint 46/100 · total legacy 76.8
Olympic golds
4
World Championship golds
4
World records
7
800 m freestyle record (s)
499.2
Olympic medals
5
US titles
45

Category profile

Dominance
86
Peak
92
Longevity
78
Honours
88
Statistics
88

Career timeline · Form index per season

SeasonForm index per seasonShare of career
1987505
1988499.24
1989500
1990502
1991505
1992507
1993510
1994513
1995516
1996520

Data sources

  • World Aquatics
  • Olympedia
  • Olympics.com

Figures come from public records and are normalised per sport. See the methodology for category weights. Method

Why Janet Evans ranks #20 in Swimming

Janet Evans ranks 20th among Swimming athletes on GOAT Rank and 334th of 1063 across every sport in the index. The published GOAT Score of 86.3 is the weighted result of five verified category scores: Dominance 86, Peak 92, Longevity 78, Honours 88, Statistics 88. Those categories are normalised against the full Swimming reference universe of 288 records, not a shortlist, so the position reflects the whole sport rather than a handful of famous names.

The record covers 1986–1996 with 10 documented competitive seasons. The strongest single season in that series is 1996, which sets the Peak component at 92. Peak is the defining strength of the profile at 92 out of 100, and it carries 20% of the final score. The underlying career record includes olympic golds 4, world championship golds 4, world records 7, 800 m freestyle record (s) 499.24.

Immediately ahead sits Krisztina Egerszegi on 86.8, a gap of 0.5 points. Directly behind is Federica Pellegrini on 83.4. 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.

Janet Evans GOAT Score explained

Dominance86/100 · weight 25%
Measures how far Evans stood above the field while competing. Scored 86/100 against the full Swimming cohort.
Peak92/100 · weight 20%
Rates the best sustained stretch of the career, centred on 1996. Scored 92/100.
Longevity78/100 · weight 20%
Rewards staying at that level over time: 10 years of competition and 10 recorded seasons. Scored 78/100.
Honours88/100 · weight 20%
Counts documented titles, majors and awards in the verified record. Scored 88/100.
Statistics88/100 · weight 15%
Normalises the raw career numbers against everyone in the sport reporting the same metric. Scored 88/100.

Janet Evans — frequently asked

Is Janet Evans the GOAT?
Not on the current data. Janet Evans ranks 20th in Swimming with a GOAT Score of 86.3, behind Michael Phelps on 98.1.
What is Janet Evans's GOAT Score?
86.3 out of 100. It is the weighted sum of Dominance 86 (25%), Peak 92 (20%), Longevity 78 (20%), Honours 88 (20%), Statistics 88 (15%), computed from the verified career record.
Where does Janet Evans rank all time?
334th of 1063 eligible athletes in the cross-sport index, and 20th within Swimming.
Janet Evans vs Krisztina Egerszegi: who ranks higher?
Krisztina Egerszegi, on 86.8 against Janet Evans's 86.3 — a margin of 0.5 points.
Compare with Phelps