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Weissmuller vs Spitz

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
WeissmullerWinner
87.6

Weissmuller wins: Dominance, Longevity

Spitz
87.5

Spitz wins: Peak, Honours

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/johnny-weissmuller-vs-mark-spitz

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Johnny Weissmuller
87.6

Weissmuller leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Five-time Olympic champion who never lost a race and set 51 world records.

1. Johnny Weissmuller
87.6
2. Mark Spitz
87.5

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. 🇺🇸 Mark Spitz5 seasons played · career day 2,55526 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇺🇸 Johnny Weissmuller5 seasons played · career day 1,82511 major golds
-57.7% vs Spitz at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Weissmuller00131119
🇺🇸 Spitz00001535

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.

MetricWeissmullerRetiredSpitzRetired
Olympic gold medals5
Olympic bronze medals1
World records5133
US national titles52
Unbeaten individual races1
Olympic golds9
Olympic medals11
World Championship golds5
Golds at one Games7
Pan American golds5
Dominance w25%9290
Peak w20%9496
Longevity w20%7270
Honours w20%8890
Statistics w15%9292

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Weissmuller87.6
Spitz87.5
The people
Weissmuller
Spitz

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Make your case for Weissmuller vs Spitz. 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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