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Popovici vs Gould

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
GouldWinner
80.9

Gould wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours, Statistics

Popovici
70.4

Popovici wins: no category outright

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/david-popovici-vs-shane-gould

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇦🇺 Shane Gould
80.9

Gould leads in 5 of 5 weighted categories. Held every freestyle world record at once and won three golds in Munich.

1. Shane Gould
80.9
2. David Popovici
70.4

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 season
1. 🇷🇴 David Popovici5 seasons played · career day 2,556235.2 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇦🇺 Shane Gould3 seasons played · career day 1,09513 major golds
-94.5% vs Popovici at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇷🇴 Popovici0000141.92281.7
🇦🇺 Gould006111313

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.

MetricPopoviciActiveGouldRetired
Olympic golds13
World titles2
European titles6
World records111
Personal best 100 m free (s)46.4
Olympic medals5
Simultaneous freestyle world records5
Age at retirement16
Dominance w25%7290
Peak w20%8696
Longevity w20%4646
Honours w20%7084
Statistics w15%8088

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Gould80.9
Popovici70.4
The people
Popovici
Gould

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Make your case for Popovici vs Gould. 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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