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Babashoff vs Popovici

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
BabashoffWinner
71.4

Babashoff wins: Longevity, Honours

Popovici
70.4

Popovici wins: Dominance, Peak, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

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Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Jack Babashoff
71.4

Babashoff leads in 2 of 5 weighted categories. Olympic 100 m freestyle silver medallist in Montreal 1976.

1. Jack Babashoff
71.4
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. 🇺🇸 Jack Babashoff5 seasons played · career day 1,825398 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇷🇴 David Popovici5 seasons played · career day 2,556235.2 major golds
-40.9% vs Babashoff at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Babashoff0062136398466
🇷🇴 Popovici0000141.92281.7

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.

MetricBabashoffRetiredPopoviciActive
Olympic medals1
US national podiums3
Personal best 100 m free (s)50.8146.4
NCAA podiums2
Olympic Games contested1
Olympic golds1
World titles2
European titles6
World records1
Dominance w25%6872
Peak w20%8486
Longevity w20%6246
Honours w20%7270
Statistics w15%7280

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Babashoff71.4
Popovici70.4
The people
Babashoff
Popovici

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