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Larsson vs Cielo

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
LarssonWinner
81.6

Larsson wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours

Cielo
81.4

Cielo wins: Longevity, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/gunnar-larsson-swim-vs-cesar-cielo

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇸🇪 Gunnar Larsson
81.6

Larsson leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Double Olympic champion in Munich 1972, winning the 400 m medley by two thousandths.

1. Gunnar Larsson
81.6
2. César Cielo
81.4

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. 🇧🇷 César Cielo5 seasons played · career day 2,19013 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇸🇪 Gunnar Larsson5 seasons played · career day 1,8266 major golds
-53.8% vs Cielo at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇸🇪 Larsson000148
🇧🇷 Cielo00011018

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.

MetricLarssonRetiredCieloRetired
Olympic gold medals2
European Championship golds4
World records32
Olympic finals4
Swedish records30
Olympic golds1
World titles4
Olympic medals3
50m freestyle best (sec)20.91
Dominance w25%8482
Peak w20%9290
Longevity w20%6670
Honours w20%8280
Statistics w15%8486

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Larsson81.6
Cielo81.4
The people
Larsson
Cielo

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Make your case for Larsson vs Cielo. 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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