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Weissmuller vs le Clos

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
le ClosWinner
87.8

le Clos wins: Longevity

Weissmuller
87.6

Weissmuller wins: Dominance, Peak, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/johnny-weissmuller-vs-chad-le-clos

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇿🇦 Chad le Clos
87.8

le Clos leads in 2 of 5 weighted categories. Beat Michael Phelps to 200m butterfly gold in London 2012.

1. Chad le Clos
87.8
2. Johnny Weissmuller
87.6

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. 🇿🇦 Chad le Clos5 seasons played · career day 2,556567.9 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇺🇸 Johnny Weissmuller5 seasons played · career day 1,82511 major golds
-98.1% vs le Clos at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Weissmuller00131119
🇿🇦 le Clos0000228.4793.7

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.

MetricWeissmullerRetiredle ClosActive
Olympic gold medals5
Olympic bronze medals1
World records51
US national titles52
Unbeaten individual races1
Olympic golds1
Olympic medals4
World short course golds17
Commonwealth golds8
200m butterfly best (sec)112.68
Dominance w25%9284
Peak w20%9492
Longevity w20%7288
Honours w20%8888
Statistics w15%9288

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
le Clos87.8
Weissmuller87.6
The people
Weissmuller
le Clos

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Make your case for Weissmuller vs le Clos. 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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