Who is better, Cielo or Manuel?
Simone Manuel leads with a GOAT score of 81.5 against 81.4 for César Cielo — a gap of 0.1 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Cielo vs Manuel
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Simone Manuel above César Cielo: 81.5 vs 81.4. Simone Manuel leads on Honours, Longevity. César Cielo leads on Statistics, Dominance.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
ManuelWinner
81.5Manuel wins: Longevity, Honours
Cielo
81.4Cielo wins: Dominance, Statistics
Candidates
Locked to SwimmingShareable URL · /compare/cesar-cielo-vs-simone-manuel
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Simone Manuel
81.5
Manuel leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Simone Manuel
2. César Cielo
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
Career stage · GOAT pace
Through season 5 · Form index per season1. 🇺🇸 Simone Manuel5 seasons played · career day 1,825442 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇧🇷 César Cielo5 seasons played · career day 2,19013 major golds
-97.1% vs Manuel at the same stage
| Ghost race · career day | 30 | 100 | 365 | 1000 | 1825 | 3650 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇧🇷 Cielo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 18 |
| 🇺🇸 Manuel | 0 | 0 | 78 | 172 | 442 | 718 |
Careers are aligned from debut; the first 5 season periods are measured against the same career window.
| Metric | CieloRetired | ManuelActive |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic golds | 1 | — |
| World titles | 4 | — |
| World records | 2 | — |
| Olympic medals | 3 | 7 |
| 50m freestyle best (sec) | 20.91 | — |
| Olympic gold medals | — | 4 |
| World Championship golds | — | 7 |
| World Championship medals | — | 16 |
| Olympic Games contested | — | 3 |
| Dominance w25% | 82 | 80 |
| Peak w20% | 90 | 90 |
| Longevity w20% | 70 | 72 |
| Honours w20% | 80 | 84 |
| Statistics w15% | 86 | 82 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Manuel81.5
Cielo81.4
FAQ
Where does Cielo beat Manuel?
Cielo scores higher on dominance, statistics. Manuel leads on honours, longevity.
How is the Cielo vs Manuel score calculated?
Both are scored on peak, dominance, honours, statistics, longevity within their sport. Cielo: 81.4, Manuel: 81.5.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Cielo vs Manuel. 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.