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Woodhead vs Babashoff

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
WoodheadWinner
86.6

Woodhead wins: Dominance, Peak

Babashoff
86.5

Babashoff wins: Longevity, Honours

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/sippy-woodhead-vs-shirley-babashoff

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Sippy Woodhead
86.6

Woodhead leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Won five golds at the 1978 World Championships and set six world records.

1. Sippy Woodhead
86.6
2. Shirley Babashoff
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. 🇺🇸 Sippy Woodhead5 seasons played · career day 1,825397 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇺🇸 Shirley Babashoff5 seasons played · career day 1,826376 major golds
-5.3% vs Woodhead at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Woodhead0055154397559
🇺🇸 Babashoff0050116296484

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.

MetricWoodheadRetiredBabashoffRetired
World Championship titles53
World records set611
Olympic silver medals1
US titles1827
Pan American titles4
Olympic medals8
Olympic gold medals2
Dominance w25%8886
Peak w20%9694
Longevity w20%7072
Honours w20%8890
Statistics w15%9292

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Woodhead86.6
Babashoff86.5
The people
Woodhead
Babashoff

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