Wikipedia:Notability (athletes)

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This is a proposal to expand the notability criteria for athletes' biography articles on Wikipedia. This is intended to be a guideline as an offshoot of the Wikipedia:Notability (people) guideline, otherwise known as WP:BIO. The current guideline for living athletes is as follows:

"Sportspeople/athletes who have played in a fully professional league, or a competition of equivalent standing in a non-league sport such as swimming, or at the highest level in mainly amateur sports, including college sports in the United States. Articles about first team squad members who have not made a first team appearance may also be appropriate, but only if the individual is at a club of sufficient stature that most members of its squad already have articles."

With the nature of sports and differences of competition among them, this statement is much too vague and should be expanded and split among other sports.

[edit] Proposed Guidelines

A worldwide consensus should be made to determine which organizations, leagues or tours are the highest level of their respective sports. It is possible for more than one organization to be at the highest level.

Achievements should be the next field considered. Various achievements that constitute notability are as follows:

  • A member of a Hall of Fame
  • A member of a selected all-star team
  • Winning a season-ending award
  • Winning an Olympic medal
  • Winning a major tournament (in individual sports)
  • Reaching an uncommon milestone (such as for US Baseball, hitting 300 home runs in a career)
  • Winning a major individual award in a major professional league (Player of the year, Offensive player of the year, Defensive player of the year, Rookie of the year, etc.)

Other celebrity aspects can also be considered, such as:

  • Endorsing or doing spokeswork for a notable product
  • Doing sports-related journalistic work for a broadcast/cable network
  • Breaking social barriers (e.g., Jackie Robinson)

Meeting the following criteria should not be notable enough, if this is the main point/highlight of an athlete's career, exceptions may apply, depending on media coverage and fan reaction, these include:

  • Winning a standard tournament (this applies to individual sports, such as golf and tennis)
  • Committing a newsworthy crime
  • Early/untimely deaths, including suicide

Additional criteria is encouraged, I feel that the guidelines set so far are too broad and set the bar fairly low for any athlete who has a short career (like playing football for a game in the 1920s) to be warranted a Wikipedia article.

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