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Budd vs Ngeny

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
NgenyWinner
80.6

Ngeny wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours, Statistics

Budd
78.7

Budd wins: Longevity

Candidates
Locked to Athletics

Shareable URL · /compare/zola-budd-vs-noah-ngeny

Time range

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

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇰🇪 Noah Ngeny
80.6

Ngeny leads in 4 of 5 weighted categories. Olympic 1500 m champion in Sydney and the 1000 m world record holder.

1. Noah Ngeny
80.6
2. Zola Budd
78.7

Category breakdown

Season form · Major golds per season

Career timeline · Major golds 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 · Major golds per season
1. 🇿🇦 Zola Budd5 seasons played · career day 1,825436 major golds
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇰🇪 Noah Ngeny5 seasons played · career day 1,82510 major golds
-97.7% vs Budd at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇿🇦 Budd0078170436682
🇰🇪 Ngeny00131010

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.

MetricBuddRetiredNgenyRetired
World Cross Country golds2
World records set2
World record 5000 m14.481
Olympic Games contested2
World junior records3
Olympic gold medals1
World Championship medals1
World records1
1000 m world record2.12
1500 m personal best3.28
Dominance w25%7882
Peak w20%8892
Longevity w20%7266
Honours w20%7678
Statistics w15%8086

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Ngeny80.6
Budd78.7
The people
Budd
Ngeny

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Make your case for Budd vs Ngeny. 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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