Who is better, Bolt or Johnson?
Usain Bolt leads with a GOAT score of 93.2 against 88.5 for Michael Johnson — a gap of 4.7 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Bolt vs Johnson
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Usain Bolt above Michael Johnson: 93.2 vs 88.5. Usain Bolt leads on Dominance, Honours, Peak. Michael Johnson leads on Longevity.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
BoltWinner
93.2Bolt wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours, Statistics
Johnson
88.5Johnson wins: Longevity
Candidates
Locked to AthleticsShareable URL · /compare/bolt-vs-michael-johnson
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 4 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Usain Bolt
2. Michael Johnson
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 Johnson — 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 | JohnsonRetired |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic golds | 8 | 4 |
| World golds | 11 | — |
| World records | 3 | 2 |
| 100m best (s) | 9.58 | — |
| 200m best (s) | 19.19 | — |
| Global finals won | 19 | — |
| World Championship golds | — | 8 |
| 400 m personal best | — | 43.18 |
| 200 m personal best | — | 19.32 |
| Undefeated 400 m finals | — | 54 |
| Dominance w25% | 98 | 88 |
| Peak w20% | 100 | 93 |
| Longevity w20% | 74 | 82 |
| Honours w20% | 98 | 90 |
| Statistics w15% | 95 | 90 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Bolt93.2
Johnson88.5
FAQ
Where does Johnson beat Bolt?
Johnson scores higher on longevity. Bolt leads on peak, dominance, honours, statistics.
How is the Bolt vs Johnson score calculated?
Both are scored on peak, dominance, honours, statistics, longevity within their sport. Bolt: 93.2, Johnson: 88.5.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Bolt vs Johnson. 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.