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Babashoff vs Bernard

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
BabashoffWinner
86.5

Babashoff wins: Dominance, Honours, Statistics

Bernard
86.5

Bernard wins: Peak, Longevity

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/shirley-babashoff-vs-alain-bernard

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Shirley Babashoff
86.5

Babashoff leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Won eight Olympic medals and set world records in the 1970s freestyle events.

1. Shirley Babashoff
86.5
2. Alain Bernard
86.5

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. 🇺🇸 Shirley Babashoff5 seasons played · career day 1,826376 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇫🇷 Alain Bernard5 seasons played · career day 1,825314 major golds
-16.5% vs Babashoff at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Babashoff0050116296484
🇫🇷 Bernard004599314650

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.

MetricBabashoffRetiredBernardRetired
Olympic medals84
Olympic gold medals22
World records set114
World Championship titles3
US titles27
European titles4
Personal best in the 100 metres4,743
Dominance w25%8684
Peak w20%9496
Longevity w20%7278
Honours w20%9086
Statistics w15%9290

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Babashoff86.5
Bernard86.5
The people
Babashoff
Bernard

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