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Babakova vs van Niekerk

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
BabakovaWinner
86.4

Babakova wins: Longevity, Statistics

van Niekerk
82.9

van Niekerk wins: no category outright

Candidates
Locked to Athletics

Shareable URL · /compare/inha-babakova-vs-wayde-van-niekerk

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇦 Inha Babakova
86.4

Babakova leads in 5 of 5 weighted categories. World champion in 1999 with a personal best of 2.05 m.

1. Inha Babakova
86.4
2. Wayde van Niekerk
82.9

Category breakdown

Season form · Major golds per season

Career timeline · Major golds 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 · Major golds per season
1. 🇿🇦 Wayde van Niekerk5 seasons played · career day 3,286219.1 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇺🇦 Inha Babakova5 seasons played · career day 3,2869.9 major golds
-95.5% vs van Niekerk at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇦 Babakova00001.969.92
🇿🇦 van Niekerk000044.38219.09

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.

MetricBabakovaRetiredvan NiekerkActive
World titles1
Olympic medals1
World indoor medals4
Personal best in metres2.05
Olympic appearances4
Olympic golds1
World Championship golds2
400 m world record (s)43.03
World records1
Sub-44 races7
200 m best (s)19.84
Dominance w25%8282
Peak w20%9292
Longevity w20%8872
Honours w20%8282
Statistics w15%9088

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Babakova86.4
van Niekerk82.9
The people
Babakova
van Niekerk

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Make your case for Babakova vs van Niekerk. 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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