How to Create a Wikipedia Page for an Athlete?

Athletes are a highly represented category on Wikipedia.

Whether you are the athlete wanting to create your own page, their agent, a family member, or simply a fan or enthusiast, I will show you how to create a Wikipedia page for that athlete in six steps!

Check that the Athlete’s Notability is Sufficient for a Dedicated Wikipedia Page

Simply being a high-level athlete or even being among the best in their country is not a sufficient criterion to have a dedicated Wikipedia page.

Before you start creating a page, you need to verify that the athlete meets the notability criteria established by Wikipedia.

🚨 If you don’t do this, here are the risks:

• Wasting time creating a page that will later be deleted
• Greater difficulty creating the future Wikipedia page once their notability is sufficient
• Blocking of your account or IP address

Here are the criteria that justify the creation of a Wikipedia article about an athlete (checking just one of these criteria is sufficient):

• Having won a significant international competition or tournament or finishing in the top ranks
• Having played in a professional league in a team sport or an equivalent competition in an individual professional sport, or at the highest level of an amateur sport in a country of at least medium size, including college competitions in the United States; and having had a sufficiently remarkable career to be of encyclopedic interest
• Attracting media attention for reasons other than their athletic performance (e.g., a doping scandal)
• Being selected for the national team of a team sport in a country of at least medium size
• Being a champion of an official national sports federation in a country of at least medium size
• Having received at least one Olympic diploma (top eight placements per event) at the Olympic Games

🚨 There are even more specific criteria for certain sports, such as athletics field, basketball, boxing, cricket, cue sports, etc. These criteria are listed here.

Through internet research, check if your athlete meets these criteria. It will often be necessary to identify external media (not their own website) that mention this athlete. Look for general media (not sports magazines) and national coverage (not local press).

💡 If you prefer to delegate this work, I can also conduct a notability audit for you. It will help you determine if you can have a Wikipedia page and provide an overview of the quality of your media relations and online reputation. Contact me.

Find a Featured Wikipedia Article on an Athlete for Inspiration

Is the athlete’s notability confirmed according to the criteria defined by Wikipedia? Perfect! You can start creating the page 🥳!

Begin by finding a featured article about an athlete in the same sport for inspiration. You can find a complete list of these articles here.

For example, if you are looking to create an article about a basketball player, you can draw inspiration from Michael Jordan’s article.

Create a Draft of the Page

Now that you have an idea of what the page should look like, you can start writing it!

Here’s how:

1. Go to your draft after creating or logging into your account.
2. Insert an infobox and complete it, including a copyright-free photo, if possible.
3. Create different sections and format them: Biography, Achievements, Notes and References, etc.
4. Add one or more portals and categories, including the Sports Portal.
5. Write an introduction of one to a few sentences summarizing the entire article. The longer the article, the longer the introduction should be, and vice versa.
6. Write paragraphs for each section, ensuring you select verifiable information (avoid blogs or commercial sites) and that the content is encyclopedic in nature.
7. Add sources for each piece of information, using a citation template to properly format the page.
8. Include external links to the athlete’s website or their biographical pages on their federation’s site, for example.
9. Conduct a thorough proofreading to avoid superlatives and a tone that might sound too promotional.

Submit Your Article for Review or Publish It

Once your article is finalized in draft format, you can choose to:

• Request a preliminary review. This is recommended if you are not accustomed to contributing to Wikipedia.
• Publish your draft. The article will be live immediately, but robots and humans will still review it to ensure it belongs in the encyclopedia and is well-written.

Declare Any Potential Conflict of Interest

Wikipedia allows contributions from people who have a direct connection to the subject of the page they are creating or editing: an athlete creating a page about themselves or their club, an agency representing an athlete, a marketing manager from a company sponsoring the athlete, etc.

However, if you contribute in this context, your contributions are monitored. You must declare your conflict of interest on the talk page of the articles you edit, on your Wikipedia profile, and/or in your edit summary.

If you fail to do this, you expose yourself to the following risks:

• The addition of an unsightly red banner at the top of the page saying “undisclosed paid contribution”
• Deletion of the page
• Blocking of your account and IP address

See also: yes, you can create a Wikipedia page about yourself. But there are many things to comply with.

Activate the Watchlist for the Athlete’s Page

You can click the star at the top right of the created page.

This way, you will be notified by email whenever someone edits the page or if it gets deleted.

---

I hope this guide has been helpful. You will find additional resources on my website to assist you in your Wikipedia project independently. If you would like to use my services, feel free to contact me. Looking forward to it!