Talk:Winning streak

Heather McKay
I've tried to find stats for Heather McKay but failed to find any more information on the web than the usual "19 years without defeat in squash at the highest level, 1962 to 1981" and "lost only two games in her entire career (in 1960 and 1962), winning 16 consecutive British Opens and 14 Australian". Even if she played only 8-10 tournaments a year, this ought to add up to a Khan-threatening string; she needed to play only 555/19 = 29 matches per year to do that. Someone must have kept track. Do any of our Australian co-editors have access to this information? Afasmit (talk) 08:10, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Too inclusive?
Perhaps we should limit the streaks a bit; remarkable ones are now lost in a sea of the truly mundane. How about limiting consecutive gold medals or titles by countries to really outstanding ones. 16 consecutive Olympic titles by the US in the pole vault is noteworthy, 3 consecutive world titles in any swimming event by different swimmers from the US is not. Afasmit (talk) 18:01, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Split proposed
In a nutshell, sections that includes the Olympic Games section deserves a list of it's own section as this list is already overcrowded and becoming unweidly. Donnie Park (talk) 09:15, 11 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Support a split. BD2412  T 13:24, 29 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Pinging feel free to split. It's been 5 years without opposition (I wanted to ping Donnie but they've been banned lol).  A. C. Santacruz  &#8258;  Talk  11:53, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I have created Winning streaks in the Olympic Games, and have started moving stuff over there. Cheers! BD2412  T 06:17, 19 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I've now moved the remaining misplaced sections there. Felix QW (talk) 14:56, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

Questions

 * 1) Individual wins in team games. Player A plays for team B for two games. They win both. He is then rested for a game, which they lose, and then plays two more, which they win. Does Player A have a winning streak of 4?
 * 2) Does a streak have to be for all games? If a football team wins 4 games in the Premier League, is that a streak if they lost an FA Cup game in the middle of them?
 * 3) Do we have a reference to back up the idea that a sequence of wins in a specific competition (e.g. Olympics) is a streak if the players loses games between Olympics?

DJ Clayworth (talk) 21:29, 16 June 2017 (UTC)

Requested move 27 March 2020

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: moved as proposed, with no prejudice against or preference for either subsequently moving to a List title or to splitting one or more List articles from an article on the concept. --  JHunterJ (talk) 14:01, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Winning streak (sports) → Winning streak – As per WP:PRIMARYUSAGE, it needn't require a DAB title "Winning streak (sports)"Amchow78 (talk) 18:23, 27 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Support - primary meaning and an opportunity to generalize. One can be on a "winning streak" in more than just sports, such as games, the stock market, dating, etc. See also losing streak. -- Netoholic @ 19:13, 27 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Support per views[|Winning_Streak_(film)|Winning_Streak_(American_game_show)|Winning_Streak] which show 6,128 for the sports meaning but only 651 for the Irish game show, 262 for the film and 60 for the American game show. Also per WP:DIFFCAPS, I would support moving the Irish game show and the DAB to the Title Case base name. By PT#2 the sports meaning is clearly primary.  Crouch, Swale  ( talk ) 19:41, 27 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I've opened an RM to cover the game show and disambiguation page. -- Netoholic @ 21:11, 27 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Move Winning streak (sports) to List of winning streaks. That's a list, not an article. —BarrelProof (talk) 02:32, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Move Winning streak (sports) to List of winning streaks. Agree with user BarrelProof it's a list and it needs to have sports in its name. Also, keep it just sports streaks. The article is already too long regarding length during editing source. Adding all types of streaks could cause memory issues while editing. dawnleelynn(talk) 03:13, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
 * It could be List of winning streaks in sports or List of sports winning streaks. This might depend on whether we want to characterize all of these games as sports. The article about sport doesn't seem to discuss games like marbles, chess, Super Smash Bros., billiards, and radio-controlled car racing. It might be more precise to describe the subjects as "games". —BarrelProof (talk) 18:12, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
 * If we do move it to a descriptive title then "Winning streak" should redirect to that place.  Crouch, Swale  ( talk ) 18:14, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree (with a hatnote). —BarrelProof (talk) 18:39, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Support per nom, a disambiguator is not required. Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 09:56, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Support per nom. Expand discussion of what a winning streak in sports actually is, and break out the longer list portions into separate articles (as proposed in sections above). BD2412  T 11:41, 29 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Support. Clear primary topic. -- Necrothesp (talk) 14:29, 1 April 2020 (UTC)


 * The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

America's Cup
Why is the New York Yacht Club's 132 year winning streak in the America's Cup not included on this page? Brian Falkner (talk) 21:13, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

Lists split to drafts, and assessment of them
Based on the fact this article was becoming an indiscriminate collection of lists of varyingly random unsourced winning streaks in sports, I have either (1) removed such content where it is already suitably covered elsewhere, or there is indication that obtaining a winning streak isn't particularly notable within the sport in question (lack of media and Wikipedia coverage), or (2) split the list out to its own article.

Some of these I think have a good chance of becoming good standalone lists:
 * 1) List of winning streaks in baseball and softball – already moved to mainspace
 * 2) Draft:List of winning streaks in association football – the number of listicles that come under List of world association football records is massive, as is the number of stats-minded editors who want to maintain them
 * 3) Draft:List of winning streaks in esports – lots of editors on the subject
 * 4) Draft:List of winning streaks in lacrosse – sources show that winning streaks are significant in lacrosse

Some, I think should have the information migrated to appropriate record sections at the articles of relevant competitions:
 * 1) Draft:List of winning streaks in auto racing – inclusion of some records in the motor racing field in other articles suggests some weight; records are separated by specific tournament (which, elsewhere, further splits to drivers, manufacturers, certain cars while at the specific tournament), so should be moved to that level.
 * 2) Draft:List of winning streaks in collegiate gridiron football – already plenty of records at NCAA division articles
 * 3) Draft:List of winning streaks in gridiron football – in keeping with the variety other records articles
 * 4) Draft:List of winning streaks in rugby football formats – and there are links in it for the rugby league competitions; Test match (rugby union) seems like it would be suitable for the rugby union ones.
 * 5) Draft:List of winning streaks in minor ice hockey leagues – not enough stats for a standalone listicle like the NHL has, but sourced enough to warrant mention at the league articles.
 * 6) Draft:List of winning streaks in motorcycle sports – same vein as auto racing, significance in source.

Some, I still have concerns about the significance of winning streaks in the sport or competition:
 * I think I, as has been mentioned elsewhere on this talkpage, generally question whether winning in a certain event at consecutive iterations of a multi-sport/event tournament that can be held years apart is either practically or philosophically a "winning streak". Sources also do not seem to put much weight on this element, especially in traditionally amateur sports where the label of "winning streak" as a kind of promotion would not really happen.


 * 1) Draft:List of winning streaks in aquatic sports – there is mention of four individuals under Overall, who had outstanding (if unsourced) records, but otherwise it does not seem that anyone is concerned with shorter-term winning streaks, which are mostly "won X specific race at 3 consecutive instances of Y competition". These competitions don't seem concerned with people winning in consecutive years, either, which seems to be the general attitude towards routine success of individuals at multi-sport events.
 * 2) Draft:List of winning streaks in archery – as above, multi-event tournaments that don't seem to give weight to routine success beyond the success itself
 * 3) Draft:List of winning streaks in athletics – some other outstanding records in Overall, but same as above.
 * 4) Draft:List of winning streaks in winter sports – ditto
 * 5) Draft:List of winning streaks in cue sports – ditto
 * 6) Draft:List of winning streaks in cycling – ditto. I think the point is especially made by the mention that the record for consecutive wins is no longer held by Lance Armstrong; his total number of wins was famous, but not really the consecutive element.
 * 7) List of winning streaks in the Olympic Games – A previous split, and yes it's in mainspace, but does one really get a winning streak at the Olympics? There are some nice anecdotes in the Swimming section that may belong somewhere, but one section of the article literally says that any nation with medals at three consecutive Olympics is listed, which is getting close to being indiscriminate and an unremarkable 'achievement' (within the context of winning Olympic medals, a nation medaling in three consecutive years isn't really special). And, for how major Olympic medals are, only one source that puts any significance on consecutive wins is used in the article (a Team USA promo video, at that).

Other:
 * 1) Draft:List of winning streaks in boating – with the exception of the outstanding record of the Americas Cup, insignificant. Americas Cup record probably warrants a mention at Winning streak.
 * 2) Draft:List of winning streaks in combat sports – winnings streaks seem relevant to Boxing, but not the other sports, so boxing could be split out and the rest in the "insignificant" pile.
 * 3) Draft:List of winning streaks in equine sports – insignificant for the "annual multi-sport event" ones. For horse racing, where there can be races every week, winning streaks seems suitably notable.
 * 4) Draft:List of winning streaks in volleyball – college volleyball can be mentioned at an NCAA division article or records article; make sure beach volleyball is mentioned at the bios of the pair in question. Otherwise, multi-sport insignificance.
 * 5) Draft:List of winning streaks in racquet sports – impressive records in racquetball and squash may warrant mention elsewhere, perhaps at Winning streak, but the rest seems insignificant.
 * Kingsif (talk) 03:06, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

Trim proposal
Now that the AfD discussion is closed as no consensus, I propose restoring this revision of the article by @Kingsif, which discusses the concept without the list of winning streaks, and proposes alternative venues for hosting the list per above section.

Kingsif's edits were reverted by @Randy Kryn with the edit summary: this page has been at AfD with relistings and many comments to keep the page, so back to the version people were commenting about. Per my comment at the AfD, more editors did not think that Wikipedia should host an indiscriminate collection of winning streaks than explicitly said they supported such a list, and several editors suggested trimming the article down to its concept as Kingsif's edits did. IgnatiusofLondon (talk) 00:50, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Support as proposer. IgnatiusofLondon (talk) 00:50, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Support per nom. Conyo14 (talk) 00:52, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Support If you were to write an article that had encyclopaedic value on winning streaks you might refer to statistical numeracy, and the probablility of streaks arising by random chance, as well as the psychology of winning streaks (which are there in the above) but the idea we should list every imaginable winning streak is clearly a nonsense and no sources demonstrated any notability for such a collection. The draft lists the information was hived off into are better, but they still should have some demonstration of notability of the collection per WP:LISTN.
 * Oppose, the suggested "article" is a very small summary. What readers come to this article for is not a lecture but a list of winning streaks that they could browse. Randy Kryn (talk) 09:47, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * How do you know this? Sirfurboy🏄 (talk) 10:09, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * A little birdy. In the birdy's opinion Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a dictionary, and in purposely searching for the term "winning streak" you'd think the reader would already know what it is and want to browse the examples. Randy Kryn (talk) 10:27, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * If people want a list of examples, we have plenty of example lists, see pages linked from List of winning streaks. We don't need random collections of examples here, when we have lists collated sensibly in other articles. Joseph2302 (talk) 11:50, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * You think people don't want encyclopaedic information about concepts in an encyclopaedia? Tell your little birdy that Wikipedia isn't a Book of Indiscriminate Lists. Kingsif (talk) 15:14, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Strong support as endless list an example farms are not encyclopedic content. And the proposed version keeps the encyclopedic content, and thus encourages expansion of this encyclopedic content, rather than the current version which encourages people to just add more random, unsourced WP:OR. Joseph2302 (talk) 11:48, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Support Per WP:NOTSTATS and the fact that, unlike how the reverter mischaracterised !votes at the AfD, there was agreement from both keep and delete sides that the lists are to the article's detriment. It is not the last thing that needs doing to improve it, but it should be where improvements start. Kingsif (talk) 15:16, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Support, per the arguments in the AfD. JoelleJay (talk) 21:21, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Support per WP:NOTSTATS.  Frank  Anchor  22:45, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Support per WP:NOTSTATS. Let&#39;srun (talk) 01:14, 8 March 2024 (UTC)