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Lewis vs Joyner-Kersee

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
LewisWinner
93.1

Lewis wins: Dominance, Longevity, Honours

Joyner-Kersee
92.1

Joyner-Kersee wins: Peak, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Athletics

Shareable URL · /compare/carl-lewis-vs-joyner-kersee

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Carl Lewis
93.1

Lewis leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Nine Olympic golds across four Games, including four straight long jump titles.

1. Carl Lewis
93.1
2. Jackie Joyner-Kersee
92.1

Category breakdown

Season form · Major golds per season

Career timeline · Major golds 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 · Major golds per season
1. 🇺🇸 Jackie Joyner-Kersee5 seasons played · career day 3,28735,027 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇺🇸 Carl Lewis5 seasons played · career day 2,55650 major golds
-99.9% vs Joyner-Kersee at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Lewis000029.9669.95
🇺🇸 Joyner-Kersee0000035,027

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.

MetricLewisRetiredJoyner-KerseeRetired
Olympic golds93
World Championship golds84
Olympic medals106
World records32
Long jump win streak65
100 m personal best9.86
Heptathlon world record7,291
Long jump best (m)7.49
Dominance w25%9392
Peak w20%9495
Longevity w20%9288
Honours w20%9492
Statistics w15%9294

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Lewis93.1
Joyner-Kersee92.1
The people
Lewis
Joyner-Kersee

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Make your case for Lewis vs Joyner-Kersee. 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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