How can I check the size of a collection within a Django template?

See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/ref/templates/builtins/#if : just use, to reproduce their example:

{% if athlete_list %}
    Number of athletes: {{ athlete_list|length }}
{% else %}
    No athletes.
{% endif %}

A list is considered to be False if it has no elements, so you can do something like this:

{% if mylist %}
    <p>I have a list!</p>
{% else %}
    <p>I don't have a list!</p>
{% endif %}

If you're using a recent Django, changelist 9530 introduced an {% empty %} block, allowing you to write

{% for athlete in athlete_list %}
  ...
{% empty %}
  No athletes
{% endfor %}

Useful when the something that you want to do involves special treatment for lists that might be empty.