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Matthes vs Coventry

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
CoventryWinner
89.7

Coventry wins: Longevity

Matthes
89.6

Matthes wins: Dominance, Honours

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/roland-matthes-vs-kirsty-coventry

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇿🇼 Kirsty Coventry
89.7

Coventry leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Africa's most decorated Olympian with seven medals, including two golds.

1. Kirsty Coventry
89.7
2. Roland Matthes
89.6

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. 🇿🇼 Kirsty Coventry5 seasons played · career day 1,82646 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇩🇪 Roland Matthes5 seasons played · career day 1,82513 major golds
-71.7% vs Coventry at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇩🇪 Matthes00131325
🇿🇼 Coventry0020344552

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.

MetricMatthesRetiredCoventryRetired
Olympic gold medals42
Olympic medals87
World records19
World Championship golds3
Years unbeaten in backstroke7
World Championship titles4
World records set2
Olympic Games contested5
Dominance w25%9286
Peak w20%9494
Longevity w20%8090
Honours w20%9088
Statistics w15%9292

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Coventry89.7
Matthes89.6
The people
Matthes
Coventry

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Make your case for Matthes vs Coventry. 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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