Hamish Bond
Mahe Drysdale
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Dead even across the measured categories. Our all-time ranking places Hamish Bond at #8 and Mahe Drysdale at #10.
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The case for Hamish Bond
With Eric Murray he won the men's coxless pair at London 2012 and Rio 2016, after world titles in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015. The pair became the example of a boat other countries tried to copy and could not catch on the day. Bond then moved to the eight and won a third Olympic gold in Tokyo. Murray's Olympic tally is the two pair golds. The ranking uses Bond's name because the third gold is his; the achievement the sport actually remembers is the pair.
The case for Mahe Drysdale
Olympic bronze in the men's single in 2008, silver in 2012, gold in 2016, when he held off Damir Martin in a photo finish. He also won world titles in the single in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011. The Olympic gold came last, which is the awkward shape of a single-scull career: the world titles proved the speed, and Rio was the race the sport had been waiting for him to close. One Olympic gold does not top a five-gold crew career. Five years as the world single, plus a full Olympic medal set, is why he is on this list.