Talk:Tom Farrell (hurdler)

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Proposal to expand this article

I'd like to expand on this article to include a few notable additional details from Tom Farrell's life. This is my first time editing an article so I'm starting with this quick Talk post to outline my proposed changes and sources - on the off chance someone out there may have thoughts or guidance - while I work out exactly how to do it.

I see that there have been previous attempts to add more details, which were understandably removed as they were unsourced, and therefore in breach of the wikipedia guidelines including those on Biographies of living persons. I've attempted to establish some additional sources which I hope will be sufficient, though in some cases I'm unsure if they constitute self-published - and hence unreliable - sources, notably in the example of the Liverpool Harriers website. My own feeling is that when taken together, the sources support the claims sufficiently to meet verifiability standards, but would welcome any feedback.

The two main additional sources I'd draw on would be:

Tom Farrell's self published autobiographical account of his running career 'Making of an Olympian' https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/9781800315174
Liverpool Harriers' club history website, notably https://www.liverpoolharriers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ClubHistoryPart21.pdf (see page 11).

The main thrust of the additions I'd propose would be (in decreasing order of assumed contentiousness):

Farrell's participation in the 800 metres in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Supported by both above references and others including https://web.archive.org/web/20200418042732/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/fa/tom-farrell-1.html, and http://www.olympedia.org/results/59681
As an addendum to the above, I'm wondering whether this means that (hurdler) should be changed to something else, for example (hurdler and middle distance runner), though he was best known as a hurdler.
Other details of his athletics career including holding the British record for 400m hurdles for 6 years (currently struggling for a source for this other than Farrell's biography, so I may not be able to include this), and captaining the British team at the 1958 European Championships (same references as above).
Details of Farrell's life including his education, post-athletics career in the clergy, the books he has authored, and love of football (which I'm hoping aren't extraordinary claims and will therefore all largely by supported by his autobiography).

As mentioned above, any advice or feedback on the above would be appreciated if anyone is out there listening! If not I'll keep shaping my edits and then I guess I'll find out when I make them whether they adhere to guidelines sufficiently.

Drfarrell56 (talk) 11:02, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]