Who is better, Lewis or Maradona?
Carl Lewis leads with a cross-sport score of 93.1 against 92.0 for Diego Maradona — a gap of 1.1 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Lewis vs Maradona
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Carl Lewis above Diego Maradona: 93.1 vs 92.0. Carl Lewis leads on Longevity, Honours, Statistics. Diego Maradona leads on Peak, Dominance.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →Cross-sport verdictgoatrank.world
LewisWinner
93.1Lewis wins: Longevity, Honours, Statistics
Maradona
92.0Maradona wins: Dominance, Peak
Candidates
Locked to AthleticsShareable URL · /compare/carl-lewis-vs-maradona
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Cross-sport GOAT score
🇺🇸 Carl Lewis
93.1
93.1 in-sport × 0.96 Global participation & competition depth
Lewis leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Carl Lewisdepth ×1.00
2. Diego Maradonadepth ×1.00
Category breakdown
Season form · season output
Career timeline · season output
Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.
GOAT pace tracker
Through age 21 · season output
1. 🇦🇷 Diego Maradona114 output
5 seasons by age 21 · 22.8 per season
Setting the pace at age 21
No verified birth date for Lewis — 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 | LewisRetired | MaradonaRetired · Napoli |
|---|---|---|
| Dominance w25% | 93 | 95 |
| Peak w20% | 94 | 98 |
| Longevity w20% | 92 | 82 |
| Honours w20% | 94 | 93 |
| Statistics w15% | 92 | 91 |
| Olympic golds | 9 | — |
| World Championship golds | 8 | — |
| Olympic medals | 10 | — |
| World records | 3 | — |
| Long jump win streak | 65 | — |
| 100 m personal best | 9.86 | — |
| Career goals | — | 353 |
| Career assists | — | 213 |
| Ballon d'Or | — | 0 |
| World Cups | — | 1 |
| Champions League titles | — | 0 |
| League titles | — | 3 |
| Goals per 90 | — | 0.51 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Lewis93.1
Maradona92.0
FAQ
Where does Maradona beat Lewis?
Maradona scores higher on peak, dominance. Lewis leads on honours, statistics, longevity.
How can athletes from different sports be compared?
Each in-sport GOAT score is multiplied by Competition Depth: Lewis 1.00 (athletics) and Maradona 1.00 (football). Deeper, more global sports keep more of their score.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Lewis vs Maradona. 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.