Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Samir Patel
First, I have found many articles from reputable sources by searching for him on Google (both under "Samir Patel" and his full name, "Samir Sudhir Patel"). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/02/AR2005060201924.html This from the Washington Post and http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2464605 this from ESPN are both about Samir, among other spellers. There are a bunch of articles from Indian sources about the success of Samir and other Indian-American spellers, including the winner when Samir was runner-up. And then, of course, there are tons of major web sites that give Bee results word for word or report on the final rounds. As important as the media mentions, however, is something I've argued a few times before, which is that anyone who competes at this level of the National Spelling Bee- making the final two and high finishes three times- passes the sportsperson criterion of  (if you count spellers as sportspeople) by competing at the highest level of their "sport". The National Spelling Bee is broadcast on major networks (ESPN and ABC) in prime time; it is watched by millions of people, and to reach the final rounds of the Bee, a speller must defeat not only 200+ other spellers at the national competition, but millions of others (if I recall correctly, Scripps estimates that 10 million children compete in feeder/qualifier bees, though this of course includes school bees with children that have no aspirations of going further). A speller must put in as much time at his craft as any other competitor (I don't know about you, but I don't want to read dictionaries and study word roots for five hours per day, six days per week), and to finish second place in an historic, nationally-televised competition is enough for an article in my opinion. With all of that said, this article is absolutely terrible and should probably be stripped of 95% of its content. Still, the 5% that remains is worthy of inclusion in Wikipedia
— User:Kicking222, 21:55, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
Stance: keep
Cited policy: WP:BIO (Wikipedia:Notability)