Who is better, Bolt or Owens?
Usain Bolt leads with a GOAT score of 93.2 against 86.3 for Jesse Owens — a gap of 6.9 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Bolt vs Owens
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Usain Bolt above Jesse Owens: 93.2 vs 86.3. Usain Bolt leads on Dominance, Longevity, Honours.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
BoltWinner
93.2Bolt wins: Dominance, Peak, Longevity, Honours, Statistics
Owens
86.3Owens wins: no category outright
Candidates
Locked to AthleticsShareable URL · /compare/bolt-vs-jesse-owens
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Weighted GOAT score
🇯🇲 Usain Bolt
93.2
Bolt leads in 5 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Usain Bolt
2. Jesse Owens
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
Through age 21 · Form index per season
1. 🇯🇲 Usain Bolt224 major golds
4 seasons by age 21 · 56 per season
Setting the pace at age 21
No verified birth date for Owens — shown in the pro-debut view instead.
Every career is cut at the season the athlete turned 21, so a rookie today is measured against exactly what a legend had banked by the same birthday.
| Metric | BoltRetired | OwensRetired |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic golds | 8 | 4 |
| World golds | 11 | — |
| World records | 3 | — |
| 100m best (s) | 9.58 | — |
| 200m best (s) | 19.19 | — |
| Global finals won | 19 | — |
| World records set | — | 6 |
| NCAA titles | — | 8 |
| Long jump world record years | — | 25 |
| 100 m personal best | — | 10.2 |
| Long jump best (m) | — | 8.13 |
| Dominance w25% | 98 | 90 |
| Peak w20% | 100 | 97 |
| Longevity w20% | 74 | 66 |
| Honours w20% | 98 | 90 |
| Statistics w15% | 95 | 88 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Bolt93.2
Owens86.3
FAQ
Where does Owens beat Bolt?
Owens does not lead any of the five categories; Bolt is ahead or level on all of them.
How is the Bolt vs Owens score calculated?
Both are scored on peak, dominance, honours, statistics, longevity within their sport. Bolt: 93.2, Owens: 86.3.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Bolt vs Owens. 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.