Are You Finished Yet?

The mind of an athlete is complicated. They are consistently striving to be the best, to work at a level that not many others can fathom and are always in competition. This last point is what makes stepping away from sports so difficult. Athlete’s, especially those that reach the professional level thrive on the competition. When this is taken away from in the form of retirement, there is usually a feeling that one could still compete at high enough level and therefore they should return from their hiatus.

Coming out of retirement is nothing new in professional sports. We see it constantly with boxers. George Foreman retired for the first time in 1977, then made a comeback in 1987, then another in 1994. If some promoter offered him enough money, he might consider fighting this year. Floyd Merriweather is another shining example of someone who thinks he will always have the chops to fight and would step back in the ring if there was a decent offer.

Boxing isn’t the only sport to be affected by this phenomenon. Basketball also has there share. The most prominent player in this group being Michael Jordan. Jordan retired from the game to pursue a dream of playing baseball. When then didn’t work out so well (or in reality his suspension for gambling was finished), he returned to the game. He also retired one other time only to come back and play with the Washington Wizards which was only good for Nike based on merchandise sales.

Now we get to the story of Lance Armstrong. The American cyclist owns the Tour de France by winning it a record seven times. He had most of his success after being diagnosed with cancer in 1996. After his seventh win in 2005, and amid lots of controversy in the cycling world surrounding blood doping and performance enhancing drugs, Armstrong retired…only to return in 2009 to the Tour de France. His years off did not make him any stronger and he imposed drug testing on himself that surely took lots of mental and physical wear on his body and he ended up third in the race. This year, Armstrong has said that this will be his last, but can we believe him? He is getting up there in age, but is coming in third place really that bad? If he can still compete and ends of top five this year, what stops him from coming back in 2011. In his mind he will be on the edge of victory - one excellent time trial or one small mistake from an opponent would hand him the win and an eighth Tour de France win, why step away from that?

The other major retirement in sports in the last month or so was Scott Niedermayer from the NHL. After a story book career where he has won everything possible, including a Memorial Cup, Stanley Cup, World Championship, World Junior Championship and Olympic gold medal, Niedermayer figured he had enough hardware and put the skates and stick away. Hypothetically, what if Anaheim is one solid defenceman away from being a favourite in the Stanley Cup playoffs next season? Do you think Niedermayer contemplates returning to the ice…of course he does and that would add to the long list of athlete’s returning to the games they love.

Who do you think have been the best and worst athlete’s to come out of retirement?