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Kahanamoku vs Perkins

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
KahanamokuWinner
86.8

Kahanamoku wins: Longevity

Perkins
86.7

Perkins wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/duke-kahanamoku-vs-kieren-perkins

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Duke Kahanamoku
86.8

Kahanamoku leads in 1 of 5 weighted categories. Three-time Olympic champion and the father of modern surfing.

1. Duke Kahanamoku
86.8
2. Kieren Perkins
86.7

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. 🇦🇺 Kieren Perkins5 seasons played · career day 2,19072.5 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇺🇸 Duke Kahanamoku5 seasons played · career day 2,1912 major golds
-97.2% vs Perkins at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Kahanamoku000222
🇦🇺 Perkins00014.5857.92116.63

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.

MetricKahanamokuRetiredPerkinsRetired
Olympic gold medals3
Olympic silver medals2
Olympic Games contested4
World records64
Years at world level20
Olympic golds2
World Championship golds2
1500m best (min)14.41
Commonwealth golds4
Dominance w25%8688
Peak w20%9294
Longevity w20%8674
Honours w20%8488
Statistics w15%8690

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Kahanamoku86.8
Perkins86.7
The people
Kahanamoku
Perkins

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Make your case for Kahanamoku vs Perkins. 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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