Who is better, Bolt or van Niekerk?
Usain Bolt leads with a GOAT score of 93.2 against 82.9 for Wayde van Niekerk — a gap of 10.3 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Bolt vs van Niekerk
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Usain Bolt above Wayde van Niekerk: 93.2 vs 82.9. Usain Bolt leads on Dominance, Honours, Peak.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
BoltWinner
93.2Bolt wins: Dominance, Peak, Longevity, Honours, Statistics
van Niekerk
82.9van Niekerk wins: no category outright
Candidates
Locked to AthleticsShareable URL · /compare/bolt-vs-wayde-van-niekerk
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. Wayde van Niekerk
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 van Niekerk — 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 | van NiekerkActive |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic golds | 8 | 1 |
| World golds | 11 | — |
| World records | 3 | 1 |
| 100m best (s) | 9.58 | — |
| 200m best (s) | 19.19 | — |
| Global finals won | 19 | — |
| World Championship golds | — | 2 |
| 400 m world record (s) | — | 43.03 |
| Sub-44 races | — | 7 |
| 200 m best (s) | — | 19.84 |
| Dominance w25% | 98 | 82 |
| Peak w20% | 100 | 92 |
| Longevity w20% | 74 | 72 |
| Honours w20% | 98 | 82 |
| Statistics w15% | 95 | 88 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Bolt93.2
van Niekerk82.9
FAQ
Where does van Niekerk beat Bolt?
van Niekerk does not lead any of the five categories; Bolt is ahead or level on all of them.
How is the Bolt vs van Niekerk score calculated?
Both are scored on peak, dominance, honours, statistics, longevity within their sport. Bolt: 93.2, van Niekerk: 82.9.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Bolt vs van Niekerk. 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.