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Caulkins vs Matthes

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
CaulkinsWinner
89.8

Caulkins wins: Peak, Honours, Statistics

Matthes
89.6

Matthes wins: Longevity

Candidates
Locked to Swimming

Shareable URL · /compare/tracy-caulkins-vs-roland-matthes

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Tracy Caulkins
89.8

Caulkins leads in 4 of 5 weighted categories. Won three Olympic golds in 1984 and 48 US national titles.

1. Tracy Caulkins
89.8
2. Roland Matthes
89.6

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. 🇺🇸 Tracy Caulkins5 seasons played · career day 1,825338 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇩🇪 Roland Matthes5 seasons played · career day 1,82513 major golds
-96.2% vs Caulkins at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Caulkins0055116338616
🇩🇪 Matthes00131325

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.

MetricCaulkinsRetiredMatthesRetired
Olympic gold medals34
US national titles48
World Championship titles5
American records set63
World records set5
Olympic medals8
World records19
World Championship golds3
Years unbeaten in backstroke7
Dominance w25%9292
Peak w20%9694
Longevity w20%7480
Honours w20%9290
Statistics w15%9692

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Caulkins89.8
Matthes89.6
The people
Caulkins
Matthes

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Make your case for Caulkins vs Matthes. 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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