Caeleb Dressel
Sarah Sjostrom
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Caeleb Dressel leads 3 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Caeleb Dressel at #6 and Sarah Sjostrom at #11.
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The case for Caeleb Dressel
The sprint-butterfly heir to Phelps and one of the most explosive swimmers ever. Dressel won eight Olympic gold medals through Paris 2024, including a five-gold haul at Tokyo 2020 across the 50m and 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and both American relays. He holds the 100m butterfly world record (49.45) and has been part of numerous world-record relays. At the 2017 Budapest World Championships he matched a single-meet record with seven gold medals, and across his career he has accumulated around 15 world-championship titles. Renowned for enormous power, a ferocious start and underwater speed, Dressel is the defining sprinter of the textile-suit era, though a mental-health break and a tougher Paris meet showed the toll of racing at the extreme.
The case for Sarah Sjostrom
The finest sprint and butterfly swimmer Europe has produced and a model of longevity. Sjostrom won the 100m butterfly at Rio 2016 in a world-record 55.48 that still stands, then reinvented herself as a freestyle sprinter, winning both the 50m and 100m freestyle at the Paris 2024 Olympics after an elbow injury that nearly ended her career. She has claimed three Olympic golds and around seven medals overall, together with roughly eight world-championship titles and world records in the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle. First reaching a major final as a teenager in 2008 and still winning golds sixteen years later, Sjostrom's blend of explosive speed and career durability across two distinct specialties is almost unique in the sport.