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Gaines vs Barnier

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
GainesWinner
80.3

Gaines wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours

Barnier
80.3

Barnier wins: Longevity, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/rowdy-gaines-vs-romain-barnier

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. Romain Barnier
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. 🇫🇷 Romain Barnier5 seasons played · career day 1,825326 major golds
-24.5% vs Gaines at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Gaines0070156432614
🇫🇷 Barnier0052111326654

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.

MetricGainesRetiredBarnierRetired
Olympic gold medals3
World Championship golds3
World records set11
US national titles10
Olympic Games contested1
European gold medals1
European Championship medals3
French titles8
Olympic appearances2
World Championship appearances3
Dominance w25%8074
Peak w20%9086
Longevity w20%6880
Honours w20%8280
Statistics w15%8284

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Gaines80.3
Barnier80.3
The people
Gaines
Barnier

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Make your case for Gaines vs Barnier. 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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