This page in a nutshell: An athlete is likely to have receivedsignificant coverage in multiple secondary sources, and thus benotable, if they have been successful in a major competition or won a significant honor, as listed on this page.
Q1: How is this guideline related to the general notability guideline?
A1: The topic-specific notability guidelines described on this page do not replace thegeneral notability guideline. They are intended only to stop an article from being quickly deleted when there is very strong reason to believe that significant, independent, non-routine, non-promotionalsecondary coverage from multiplereliable sources is available, given sufficient time to locate it.[1][2][3][4] Wikipedia's standard for including an article about a given person is not based on whether or not they have attained certain achievements, but on whether or not the person has received appropriate coverage in reliable sources, in accordance with the general notability guideline. Also refer toWikipedia's basic guidance on the notability of people for additional information on evaluating notability.
Q2: If a sports figure meets the criteria specified in a sports-specific notability guideline, does this mean they do not have to meet the general notability guideline?
A2: No, the article must still eventually provide sources indicating that the subject meets the general notability guideline. Although the criteria for a given sport should be chosen to be a very reliable predictor of the availability of appropriate secondary coverage from reliable sources, there can be exceptions. For contemporary persons, given a reasonable amount of time to locate appropriate sources, the general notability guideline should be met in order for an article to meet Wikipedia's standards for inclusion. (For subjects in the past where it is more difficult to locate sources, it may be necessary to evaluate the subject's likely notability based on other persons of the same time period with similar characteristics.)
Q3: If a sports figure does not meet the criteria specified in a sports-specific notability guideline, does this mean they do not meet Wikipedia's notability standards?
A3: No, it does not mean this—if the subject meets the general notability guideline, then they meet Wikipedia's standards for having an article in Wikipedia, even if they do not meet the criteria for the appropriate sports-specific notability guideline. The sports-specific notability guidelines are not intended to set a higher bar for inclusion in Wikipedia: they are meant to provide some buffer time to locate appropriate reliable sources when, based on rules of thumb, it is highly likely that these sources exist.
Q4: What is considered a "reasonable amount of time" to uncover appropriate sources?
A4: There is no fixed rule, as it may differ in each specific case. Generally, though, sincethere is no fixed schedule to complete Wikipedia articles, given a reasonable expectation that sources can be found, Wikipedia editors have been very liberal in allowing for adequate time, particularly for cases where English-language sources are difficult to find. For a contemporary sports figure in a sport that is regularly covered by national media in English, less leeway may be given.
Proposing revisions to Notability (sports)
Q5: I want to create a new sports-specific notability guideline or revise an existing one. What approach should I take?
A5: Consider what criteria that, if met, means that the sports figure is highly likely to have significant, independent, non-routine, non-promotionalsecondary coverage fromreliable sources. Test your proposed criteria by trying to find persons who meet them but do not have appropriate secondary coverage. It's best to keep your criteria fairly conservative, since for most contemporary persons, establishing notability via the general notability guideline is straightforward enough and the additional buffer time provided by a sports-specific notability guideline isn't needed, so trying to draw a more liberal line isn't worth the effort.
Many discussions on rules of thumb start with, "This league/championship is important," or "This sport is popular in country X." While these arguments provide indirect evidence, a much better way to reach an agreement is to double-check if everyone meeting the proposed criteria has appropriate sources meeting the general notability guideline. For example, for an individual championship, you can list everyone who has won the championship and, for each person, the corresponding sources that show they meet Wikipedia's standards for inclusion.
Subsequent to the discussion atWikipedia:Village pump (policy)/Sports notability, proposing a guideline for the notability of an athlete purely based on their participation in a non-championship final or non-Olympic event is likely to meet opposition.
Note the "nutshell summary" and the "Basic criteria" section are high-level descriptions of the type of criteria used by each sport. This does not mean that any criteria that fit these descriptions are suitable. You must demonstrate that the proposed criteria are effective as a way to determine if a subject meets the general notability guideline.
Q6: What constitutes "non-routine" secondary coverage for sports?
Q7: But these athletes have won championship X; surely that makes them notable?
A7: For better or worse, discussions in Wikipedia use the term "notable" as a shorthand for "meets Wikipedia's standards for inclusion in the encyclopedia". As a result, there are many subjects that can meet the everyday meaning of notable, yet fail to meet Wikipedia's standards for having an article.
This guideline is used to help evaluate whether or not asports person orsports league/organization (amateur or professional) is likely to meet thegeneral notability guideline, and thus merit an article in Wikipedia.The article should provide reliable sources showing that the subject meets the general notability guideline.
If the article meets the criteria set forth below, then it is likely that sufficient sources exist to satisfythe inclusion criteria for a stand-alone article. Failing to meet the criteria in this guideline means that notability will need to be established in other ways (for example, the general notability guideline, orother, topic-specific, notability guidelines).
Please note that the failure to meet these criteria does not mean an articlemust be deleted; conversely, meeting any of these criteria does not mean that an articlemust be kept. These are merely rules of thumb which some editors choose to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to keep an article that is onarticles for deletion, along with relevantpolicies and guidelines such asWikipedia:Verifiability andWikipedia:Reliable sources.
All information included in Wikipedia, including articles about sports, must beverifiable. In addition, the subjects of standalone articles should meet thegeneral notability guideline. The guideline on this page provides bright-line guidance to enable editors to determine quickly if a subject is likely to meet the general notability guideline. Information about living persons must meet themore stringent requirements for those types of articles.
Subjects who donot meet the sport-specific criteria outlined in this guideline may still be notable if they meet the general notability guideline or anothersubject specific notability guideline.
Any athletic entertainment event at which the results are at least partially predetermined or scripted isnot covered by this page. For participants in such events (for example,professional wrestling), seeWP:ENTERTAINER. At this time there is no consensus thatesports participants are covered by the criteria of this guideline.[1]
Sports which are not listed on this page should defer to the§ Basic criteria for guidance. This includes both those which were never listed, and those which were but have since been removed, most recently following anRfC from January–March 2022.
A person is presumed to benotable if they have been the subject of significant coverage, that is, multiple published[2] non-trivial[3]secondary sources which arereliable, intellectually independent,[4] and independent of the subject.[5] The guidelines on this page are intended to reflect the fact that sports figures are likely to meetWikipedia's basic standards of inclusion if they have achieved success in a major international competition at the highest level.
Trivial coverage of a subject bysecondary sources may be used to support content in an article, but it is not sufficient to establish notability. This includes listings in database sources with low, wide-sweeping generic standards of inclusion, such asSports Reference's college football and basketball databases.
Fan sites and blogs are generally not regarded asreliable sources. Team sites and governing sports bodies are not considered independent of their players. Although statistics sites may be reliable sources, they are not sufficient by themselves to establish notability.[6]
Primary sources may be used to support content in an article, but they do not contribute toward proving the notability of a subject.
Some sources must be used with particular care when establishing notability, and should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Local sources must beindependent of the subject, and must provide reports beyondroutine game coverage. Listings of statistics must clearly satisfy the requirement for significant coverage.
All sports biographies, including those of subjects meeting any criteria listed below, must include at least one reference to a source providing significant coverage of the subject, excluding database sources. Meeting this requirement alone does not indicate notability, but it does indicate that there are likely sufficient sources to merit a stand-alone article.
Significant coverage is likely to exist for athletes who compete in the field ofathletics if they meet any of the criteria below:
Finished top 8 in a competition at the highest level outside of the Olympic Games and world championships. Individual events in these championships must contain either several heats or extended fields (e.g.,European Athletics Championships,Commonwealth Games, or any of the 6World Major Marathons).
Finished top 3 in any other major senior-level international competition (this includes prestigious small field meets, e.g.,Diamond League /IAAF Golden League meets, less-prestigious large-scale meets, e.g.,Asian Games, and any Platinum or GoldWorld Athletics Label Road Races that are not explicitly mentioned above)
Have won their country's senior national championship, with the exception of those who have never been ranked in the top 60 on theWorld Athletics world leading list at the end of a given calendar year
Have won the elite division of multiple notable* road races (including the same race multiple times), or have established a history of highly competitive, non-winning performances in many notable races (at least 10 top-threes)
Have at any time held a world or continental record (including world junior records, world youth bests, and masters age-group world records) ratified or noted by the relevant official body
Owns a mark that placed the athlete in the top 12 in the world for that calendar year in a non-relay event contested or admitted to the seniorWorld Athletics Championships orOlympics, or an equivalent performance over a closely matchingimperial distance
Have a non-relay mark listed on theWorld Athletics senior all-time list or equivalent list
To non-athletes associated with the sport (or athletes whose main claim to notability is non-athletic activity), significant coverage is likely to exist if they meet the following criteria:
Coaches who have coached many notable athletes, including at least one non-relayOlympic medalist,World champion, or senior World Record holder during the time of the athletes' notable accomplishments.
Coaches who have been the official head coach of an Olympic track and field team for a country with multiple medalists.
Coaches who introduced a notable technique or training method, and are widely credited as the originator.
Clubs that have received major international coverage for their successes and have a résumé composed of many successful Olympians over a long period of time (for example,Irish American Athletic Club). If a club's success is mainly due to one coach, then only the coach is notable.
Significant coverage is likely to exist for a road race if it meets any one of the following criteria:
It has an international elite (as defined by theWorld Athletics standards for that year) field of at least 5 different nationalities.
It receives broadcast or cable television coverage beyond the local market (if coverage is through the internet, the site must be independent of the sport, for exampleUniversal Sports).
It is a directly competitive meeting between several notable performers (at least 5).
The following criteria may also be used to satisfy road race notability, but does not count towards the notability of athletes who compete in these races:
It has been the site of exceptional performances or records (bests).
It regularly has more than 5,000 competitors.
It has been held over a unique course or distance consistently over a period of 25 years.
Additionally, cricketers who have played at the highest domestic level or in the lower levels of international cricket may have sufficient coverage about them to justify an article, but it should not be assumed to exist without further proof. For both of these, a detailed listing of which leagues or competitions are more likely (or not) to have such coverage is maintained by the cricket wikiproject: seeWP:OFFICIALCRICKET.
SeeWikipedia:WikiProject Cue sports/Notability, which covers players and other persons, as well as governing bodies, manufacturers, periodicals, tournaments, rulesets, equipment, and venues. It is aWP:PROJPAGE, explaining howWP:Notability applies to the topic area and outlining what is likely/unlikely to be found notable, rather than setting rules or attempting to establish any variances fromWP:NBASIC and NSPORT in general.
Equestrians competing at the highest level of international competition are not always "professionals", some earn money and some do not, but most have sponsors or receive money to support their activities. Both professionals and non-professionals have been put in the professional sports category for convenience.
Significant coverage is likely to exist for individual people and horses who are involved inequestrian sport if they:
Have medaled at thePan American Games as a rider, driver, or official team coach
Significant coverage is also likely to exist for persons or horses associated with equestrian competition who do not meet the criteria outlined above if they are or have been:
A coach orhorse trainer who worked with many competitors (human or animal) considered notable by the criteria above, including at least one individual Olympic medalist or World Equestrian Games champion.
Individual inductees into a major equestrian-oriented national hall of fame dedicated to sports with international-level competition, such as theUnited States Show Jumping Hall of Fame.
Ahorse breeder who was the breeder of record for many notable horses including the mounts of at least one Olympic medal or World Equestrian Games championship competitor.
A horse notable for being a parent or ancestor of a major competitor.
Some but not all winners of national-level championships, particularly those considered the highest honor within a particular discipline orhorse breed competition (especially where there is no significant international championship level).
Individuals who made major contributions to the equestrian industry such as veterinarians, researchers, artists, and inventors.
Won their country'sseniornational championships, with the exception of those countries that do not regularly send multiple skaters to the Olympic Games (consult thisOlympic athlete tally to check whether the country qualifies).
As coach or choreographer, have worked with many notable skaters, including at least one Olympic medalist or senior World Champion (for example,Pam Gregory andDavid Wilson)
Have been the head of a national and international federation.
Significant coverage is likely to exist forartistic gymnasts if they meet any of the criteria below:
Won a senior individual medal at an elite international competition (see below)
Won their country's senior all-around or individual event finals national championship while competing for a country that qualified a full team into the most recent Olympics or seniorWorld Championships
Significant coverage is likely to exist for coaches if they
Have coached many notable athletes, including at least one individual Olympic medalist or world champion
Have been the official head coach of an Olympic or World Championship team
An elite international competition is any competition with considerable internationalWP:GNG coverage between at least eight notable athletes. Examples include:
Not all participants in horse racing are athletic "professionals", particularly owners and breeders, but due to purse money and profit motive throughout the sport they are put in the professional sports category for convenience.
Significant coverage is likely to exist forhorse racing figures, including horses and/or their human "connections" (horse trainers,jockeys, or horse owners andhorse breeders) if they have accomplished any of the following:
Individuals who win a US Grade I/Group Igraded stakes race or the equivalent level in their respective nations. (Horses, due to their relatively short careers, at least once; humans best to have done so more than once)
Individuals who have won multiple significant US Grade/Group 2 or 3 graded stakes races or the equivalent level in their respective nations.
Individuals who have won year-end championship titles, such as theEclipse Award.
Members of a national racing hall of fame.
Significant coverage is also likely to exist for horses or persons associated with horse racing who were not competitors or do not meet the criteria above, if they meet any of the following:
Horses that may not have raced to any significant degree (usually due to injury), but had multiple significant progeny, such asTapit.
Horses who are ranked the leading sire or broodmare for a given year in their respective nations (again, seeTapit)
Breeding farms or farm owners that do not race many horses themselves, but have produced or currently stand horses who became notable winners. (i.e.,Adena Springs)
Agents, race track announcers (e.g.,Larry Collmus), racing journalists (e.g.,Steve Haskin), venue owners (e.g.,Frank Stronach) and other business professionals with a significant connection to horse racing.
Horses and individuals involved in highly publicized thefts or other crimes, e.g.,Shergar, scandals, or other nefarious activities, such as substitution scams, e.g.,Fine Cotton.
An individual person with a connection to a notable horse is not presumed notable for that reason only, seeWP:BIO1E, though if the individual's role is a large one, a significant connection to a single notable horse might justify a spinoff article (e.g.,Eddie Sweat, groom ofSecretariat). Conversely, a horse is not presumed notable just because the owner is famous – ofJim Rome's racehorses,Shared Belief is notable,Gallatin's Run is probably not.
Forcoaches ormanagers of ice hockey teams, preeminent honors are all-time top-10 career wins or a best coach/manager of the season award.
For participants in defunct leagues who satisfy any of these achievement standards, please seethe ice hockey league assessment, maintained by theIce Hockey WikiProject.For leagues still in existence, only those listed above satisfy the specified criteria.
Kickboxers who have an amateur background exclusively are not notable under this guideline unless they have been the subject examined in detail (more than a single paragraph) in several reliable third-party sources (at least four), excluding local publications.
Various major road races, such as one of the high-profile inter-city races of the 1890s and 1900s, anIsle of Man TT event, theTarga Florio, or theMille Miglia.
A driver or rider who has won any of the following championship titles:
The overall championship title of any series in the previous category without winning a race (a relatively common occurrence in series whose points-scoring systems favour consistent finishes over inconsistent victories).
A current or former owner or team principal for a team in a major racing series (Formula One, the World Rally Championship, MotoGP, Formula E,Indycar,DTM, Super GT, the NASCAR Cup Series,V8 Supercars,IndyCar Series, or top-levelIMSA) for a full season or more. This includes Cup Seriescrew chiefs.
Enshrined in any notable motorsports hall of fame.
A current or former holder of significant motorsports record, such as aland speed record.
Significant coverage is likely to exist for an orienteering club if it meets any of the criteria below:
Has won a major relay (according to the criteria below, which mean presentlyTiomila (both the Tiomila relay and the women’s relay, since 1970 when the number of teams became so large that it could not be organized anymore from point A to point B) and theJukola relay (both Jukola, from 1972, and Venla).
Has been represented by ten runners who fulfill the criteria above.
Significant coverage is likely to exist for an event apart from the championships mentioned above if it meets all the following criteria:
College rodeo athletes inNIRA competition will followNCOLLATH and younger rodeo competitors will followNHSPHSATH.
Significant coverage is likely to exist for named animals participating in rodeo, such as bucking horses and bucking bulls, if they have been named to a rodeo hall of fame such as those noted above.
Significant coverage is likely to exist for sumo wrestlers if they have been ranked in either the top (makuuchi) division or second-highest (juryo) division. Significant coverage is not likely to exist for wrestlers who have only appeared in lower divisions, as they have not reached fully professional status.
Have won at least one title in any of theATP Challenger tournaments.
Have won at least one title in any of theITF Women's $40,000–$100,000+ tournaments, or any of theWTA 125 tournaments. (From 1978–2007 it was a $25,000 tournament, and 2008–2022 it was a $50,000 tournament, roughly based on the lowest payout for a men's challenger tournament in the same year).
Significant coverage is likely to exist for junior players if they have won at least a juniorGrand Slam title, have been in the top-3 of thejunior ITFworld rankings, or can be shown to meet the wider requirements ofWP:NBASIC.
This guideline applies equally to singles and doubles players.
A college athlete or coach is likely to have been the subject of non-trivial media coverage beyond merely a repeating of their statistics, mentions in game summaries, or otherWP:ROUTINE coverage if they:
Gained national media attention as an individual, not just as a player for a notable team. Very rarely, a player may gain national media attention despite not being on a notable team.
Served as a full-time (as opposed to interim) head coach for NCAA Division I/University Division football (since the establishment of divisions in 1957), men’s basketball (since 1957) or women’s basketball (since 1982). Other college coaches in other divisions and/or other sports may also meet notability guidelines viaWP:NBASIC.
High school and pre-high school athletes and athletic teams are notable only if there is substantial and prolonged coverage of the specific subject that is: (1) independent of the subject; and (2) clearly goes beyondWP:ROUTINE coverage. The first clause excludes all school papers and school websites that cover their sports teams and other teams they compete against. The second clause excludes the majority of local coverage in both news sources and sports specific publications. It especially excludes using game play summaries, statistical results, or routine interviews as sources to establish notability.
This guideline does not provide any general criteria for the presumed notability of sports teams and clubs. Some sports have specific criteria. Otherwise, teams and clubs are expected to demonstrate notability by thegeneral notability guideline.
Sincenotability is not inherited, the notability of an athlete does not imply the notability of a team or club, or vice versa.
Significant coverage is likely to exist for an athlete in any sport if they have won a medal at the modernOlympic Games, including theSummer Olympics (since 1896) or theWinter Olympics (since 1924), e.g.,Ian Thorpe, or have won a medal at theParalympic Games, e.g.Laurentia Tan, unless the athlete competed in an event with fewer than four competitors or teams (i.e., when all participants received a medal). Other exceptions may be listed at sport-specific guidelines.
Individual season articles for top-level professional teams are highly likely to meet Wikipedia notability requirements. If the article is not for a top level professional team (such as for a college team) weigh both the season itself and the sport (for example, if a US college or university's football and fencing teams enjoy the same level of success, the football team is likely to receive a significantly greater amount of coverage):
A national championship season at the top collegiate level is generally notable.
A national championship season at a lower collegiate levelmight be notable
A season including a post-season appearance (or, if there is no post-season competition, a high final ranking) in the top collegiate level is often notable.
For programs considered elite in a sport (for example,Kentucky,North Carolina,Kansas, in men's basketball;Tennessee andUConn in women's basketball;Michigan,Notre Dame,Alabama,USC in football, etc.) many or all seasons might be notable regardless of the outcome (the amount written by reliable sources on a weekly basis for some of these programs is enough that almost anything or anyone having any relation to them is likely to meet the General Notability Guideline).
In cases in which the individual season notability is insufficient for an article, multiple seasons may be grouped together in a single article. This grouping might be based on head coaches, conference affiliation, or any other reasonable standard that results in sufficient coverage for the period to warrant an article.
Regular season games in professional and college leagues are not presumed notable.To be notable, games should be extraordinary and have a lasting impact on the sport; news coverage should be extensive (e.g., outside of the week of its occurrence and in non-local newspapers).
Some games or series are likely or almost certain to be considered notable, including but not limited to the following:
Articles about notable games should have well-sourced prose, not merely a list of stats.
For a game or series that is already covered as a subtopic in another article, considerdeveloping the topic in the existing article first until it becomes clear that a standalone article is warranted. Although a game or series may be notable, it may sometimes be better to present the topic in an existing article on a broader topicinstead of creating a new standalone page.
As with teams and clubs (seeWP:NTEAM), sporting arenas, stadia and other venues do not have presumed notability, and are expected to demonstrate notability through meeting thegeneral notability guideline. Since notability is not inherited, neither the notability of a sports team nor of competitions played there imply the notability of a venue.
^What constitutes a "published work" is deliberately broad.
^Non-triviality is a measure of the depth of content of a published work, and how far removed that content is from a simple directory entry or a mention in passing that does not discuss the subject in detail. A credible 200-page independent biography of a person that covers that person's life in detail is non-trivial, whereas a birth certificate or a 1-line listing on an election ballot form is not. Database sources such asNotable Names Database,Internet Movie Database, andInternet Adult Film Database are not considered credible since they are, likewikis, mass-edited with little oversight. Additionally, these databases have low, wide-sweeping generic standards of inclusion.
^Sources that are pure derivatives of an original source can be used as references, but do not contribute toward establishing the notability of a subject. "Intellectual independence" requires not only that the content of sources be non-identical, but also that the entirety of content in a published work not derived from (or based in) another work (partial derivations are acceptable). For example, a speech by a politician about a particular person contributes toward establishing the notability of that person, but multiple reproductions of the transcript of that speech by different news outlets do not. A biography written about a person contributes toward establishing their notability, but a summary of that biography lacking an original intellectual contribution does not.
^Autobiography and self-promotion are not routes to having an encyclopaedia article. The barometer of notability is whether peopleindependent of the subject itself have actually considered the subject notable enough that they have written and published non-trivial works that focus upon it. Thus, entries in biographical dictionaries that accept self-nominations (such as theMarquis Who's Who) do not prove notability.
^Articles that are not sourced to published material providing significant coverage of the subject (beyond just statistics sites) may be nominated for deletion.
