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Bedford vs Larsson

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
BedfordWinner
81.7

Bedford wins: Longevity

Larsson
81.6

Larsson wins: Dominance, Peak

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/barbara-bedford-vs-gunnar-larsson-swim

Time range

Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Barbara Bedford
81.7

Bedford leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Olympic relay gold medallist in 2000 and a Pan Pacific champion.

1. Barbara Bedford
81.7
2. Gunnar Larsson
81.6

Category breakdown

Season form · Form index per season

Career timeline · Form index per season

Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.

GOAT pace tracker

Career stage · GOAT pace

Through season 5 · Form index per season
1. 🇺🇸 Barbara Bedford5 seasons played · career day 1,825286 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇸🇪 Gunnar Larsson5 seasons played · career day 1,8266 major golds
-97.9% vs Bedford at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Bedford004596286626
🇸🇪 Larsson000148

Careers are aligned at debut, so a rookie's first 5 seasons are measured against the same window in a legend's career — Yamal against Messi at the same age-stage, a tour rookie against Tiger Woods in 1996.

MetricBedfordRetiredLarssonRetired
Olympic gold medals12
Pan Pacific titles2
NCAA titles5
US titles6
World Championship medals2
European Championship golds4
World records3
Olympic finals4
Swedish records30
Dominance w25%7884
Peak w20%8892
Longevity w20%7866
Honours w20%8282
Statistics w15%8484

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Bedford81.7
Larsson81.6
The people
Bedford
Larsson

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Make your case for Bedford vs Larsson. The scoring is published in full — if you can point at the pillar or the weight you disagree with, we read it. Read the methodology paper.

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