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Rouwendaal vs Coughlin

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
CoughlinWinner
89.4

Coughlin wins: Dominance, Peak, Longevity, Honours, Statistics

Rouwendaal
19.6

Rouwendaal wins: no category outright

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/ml-sharon-van-rouwendaal-vs-natalie-coughlin

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Natalie Coughlin
89.4

Coughlin leads in 5 of 5 weighted categories. Twelve Olympic medals, the most by an American woman at the time.

RouwendaalInsufficient verified career data to calculate a reliable GOAT Score.

1. Natalie Coughlin
89.4
2. Sharon van Rouwendaal
Pending verification

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. 🇺🇸 Natalie Coughlin5 seasons played · career day 2,921298.1 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇳🇱 Sharon van Rouwendaal0 seasons played0 major golds
-100.0% vs Coughlin at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇳🇱 Rouwendaal000000
🇺🇸 Coughlin0000119.43357.12

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.

MetricRouwendaalActiveCoughlinRetired
Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau1
Olympic golds3
Olympic medals12
World Championship golds6
World records3
100m backstroke best (sec)58.94
Dominance w25%19.586
Peak w20%21.592
Longevity w20%17.588
Honours w20%20.592
Statistics w15%18.590

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Coughlin89.4
Rouwendaal19.6
The people
Rouwendaal
Coughlin

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Make your case for Rouwendaal vs Coughlin. 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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