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Nurmi vs Gebrselassie
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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
NurmiWinner
92.1Nurmi wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours
Gebrselassie
91.9Gebrselassie wins: Longevity, Statistics
Candidates
Locked to AthleticsShareable URL · /compare/paavo-nurmi-vs-gebrselassie
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Weighted GOAT score
🇫🇮 Paavo Nurmi
92.1
Nurmi leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Paavo Nurmi
2. Haile Gebrselassie
Category breakdown
Season form · Major golds per season
Career timeline · Major golds 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 · Major golds per season1. 🇪🇹 Haile Gebrselassie5 seasons played · career day 2,1917,874 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇫🇮 Paavo Nurmi5 seasons played · career day 1,82621 major golds
-99.7% vs Gebrselassie at the same stage
| Ghost race · career day | 30 | 100 | 365 | 1000 | 1825 | 3650 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇫🇮 Nurmi | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 16 | 37 |
| 🇪🇹 Gebrselassie | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,589 | 4,740 | 12,582.11 |
Careers are aligned from debut; the first 5 season periods are measured against the same career window.
| Metric | NurmiRetired | GebrselassieRetired |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic golds | 9 | 2 |
| Olympic medals | 12 | — |
| World records | 22 | 27 |
| Golds at one Games | 5 | — |
| Unbeaten run (races) | 121 | — |
| Distances held records at | 8 | — |
| World Championship golds | — | 4 |
| 10,000 m best (s) | — | 1,565.11 |
| Marathon best (s) | — | 7,439 |
| Major marathon wins | — | 8 |
| Dominance w25% | 93 | 90 |
| Peak w20% | 95 | 92 |
| Longevity w20% | 86 | 94 |
| Honours w20% | 94 | 91 |
| Statistics w15% | 92 | 93 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Nurmi92.1
Gebrselassie91.9
What do you think?
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