Who is better, Burton or Franklin?
Mike Burton leads with a GOAT score of 82.0 against 81.8 for Missy Franklin — a gap of 0.2 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Burton vs Franklin
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Mike Burton above Missy Franklin: 82.0 vs 81.8. Mike Burton leads on Dominance. Missy Franklin leads on Honours.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
BurtonWinner
82.0Burton wins: Dominance
Franklin
81.8Franklin wins: Honours
Candidates
Locked to SwimmingShareable URL · /compare/mike-burton-vs-missy-franklin
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Mike Burton
82.0
Burton leads in 4 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Mike Burton
2. Missy Franklin
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 season1. 🇺🇸 Missy Franklin5 seasons played · career day 2,190627.1 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇺🇸 Mike Burton5 seasons played · career day 1,8258 major golds
-98.7% vs Franklin at the same stage
| Ghost race · career day | 30 | 100 | 365 | 1000 | 1825 | 3650 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 Burton | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 11 |
| 🇺🇸 Franklin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 126 | 500.56 | 885.06 |
Careers are aligned from debut; the first 5 season periods are measured against the same career window.
| Metric | BurtonRetired | FranklinRetired |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic gold medals | 3 | — |
| World records | 7 | 2 |
| Pan American golds | 1 | — |
| US national titles | 12 | — |
| Olympic 1500 m titles | 2 | — |
| Olympic golds | — | 5 |
| World Championship golds | — | 11 |
| 200 m backstroke record (s) | — | 124.06 |
| Olympic medals | — | 6 |
| Golds at one Worlds | — | 6 |
| Dominance w25% | 84 | 80 |
| Peak w20% | 90 | 90 |
| Longevity w20% | 70 | 70 |
| Honours w20% | 82 | 86 |
| Statistics w15% | 84 | 84 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Burton82.0
Franklin81.8
FAQ
Where does Franklin beat Burton?
Franklin scores higher on honours. Burton leads on dominance.
How is the Burton vs Franklin score calculated?
Both are scored on peak, dominance, honours, statistics, longevity within their sport. Burton: 82.0, Franklin: 81.8.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Burton vs Franklin. 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.