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Gaines vs Carlin

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
GainesWinner
80.3

Gaines wins: Dominance, Honours

Carlin
80.3

Carlin wins: Longevity, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/rowdy-gaines-vs-jazmin-carlin

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Rowdy Gaines
80.3

Gaines leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Triple Olympic champion in Los Angeles 1984 after missing the boycotted 1980 Games.

1. Rowdy Gaines
80.3
2. Jazmin Carlin
80.3

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. 🇺🇸 Rowdy Gaines5 seasons played · career day 1,825432 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇬🇧 Jazmin Carlin5 seasons played · career day 2,55623 major golds
-94.7% vs Gaines at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Gaines0070156432614
🇬🇧 Carlin00001238

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.

MetricGainesRetiredCarlinRetired
Olympic gold medals3
World Championship golds3
World records set11
US national titles10
Olympic Games contested1
Olympic medals2
European titles2
World Championship medals1
Commonwealth medals2
British records3
Dominance w25%8074
Peak w20%9090
Longevity w20%6878
Honours w20%8278
Statistics w15%8284

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Gaines80.3
Carlin80.3
The people
Gaines
Carlin

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Make your case for Gaines vs Carlin. 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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