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Gould vs Popovici

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
GouldWinner
80.9

Gould wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours, Statistics

Popovici
70.4

Popovici wins: no category outright

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/shane-gould-vs-david-popovici

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇦🇺 Shane Gould
80.9

Gould leads in 5 of 5 weighted categories. Held every freestyle world record at once and won three golds in Munich.

1. Shane Gould
80.9
2. David Popovici
70.4

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. 🇷🇴 David Popovici5 seasons played · career day 2,556235.2 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇦🇺 Shane Gould3 seasons played · career day 1,09513 major golds
-94.5% vs Popovici at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇦🇺 Gould006111313
🇷🇴 Popovici0000141.92281.7

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.

MetricGouldRetiredPopoviciActive
Olympic golds31
Olympic medals5
World records111
Simultaneous freestyle world records5
Age at retirement16
World titles2
European titles6
Personal best 100 m free (s)46.4
Dominance w25%9072
Peak w20%9686
Longevity w20%4646
Honours w20%8470
Statistics w15%8880

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Gould80.9
Popovici70.4
The people
Gould
Popovici

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Make your case for Gould vs Popovici. 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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