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Franklin vs Cielo

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
FranklinWinner
81.8

Franklin wins: Honours

Cielo
81.4

Cielo wins: Dominance, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/missy-franklin-vs-cesar-cielo

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Missy Franklin
81.8

Franklin leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Four golds at London 2012 aged 17, plus 11 world titles.

1. Missy Franklin
81.8
2. César Cielo
81.4

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. 🇺🇸 Missy Franklin5 seasons played · career day 2,190627.1 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇧🇷 César Cielo5 seasons played · career day 2,19013 major golds
-97.9% vs Franklin at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Franklin000126500.56885.06
🇧🇷 Cielo00011018

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.

MetricFranklinRetiredCieloRetired
Olympic golds51
World Championship golds11
World records22
200 m backstroke record (s)124.06
Olympic medals63
Golds at one Worlds6
World titles4
50m freestyle best (sec)20.91
Dominance w25%8082
Peak w20%9090
Longevity w20%7070
Honours w20%8680
Statistics w15%8486

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Franklin81.8
Cielo81.4
The people
Franklin
Cielo

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Make your case for Franklin vs Cielo. 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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