Comeback kings (and paupers)

History is littered with examples of sporting greats like Sweden's Bjorn Borg who just couldn't walk away from the game. Photo / Supplied

1 Bjorn Borg
The Swede dominated tennis in the 1970s and early '80s, winning 11 grand slams in eight years. As a clay court specialist, he astounded experts by triumphing at Wimbledon on five consecutive occasions, a feat only matched (but not bettered) by Roger Federer in 2007. He also lost just one match at Roland Garros between 1974 and 1981 and altogether won 41 per cent of the grand slams he entered.

His motivation had waned by 1983 - with ongoing disputes with the tennis authorities - but it was still a shock when he walked away from the sport at age 25. He set up an underwear label under his own name and there were a series of high profile relationships with various European glamour girls. In 1991, he announced a comeback.

He even grew his hair out to recapture that 1970s look and most bizarrely of all elected to use his wooden racquet against men using the latest graphite technology. It was honourable but also sad to see a former great struggling against relative journeymen. He failed to win a set in his first nine tour comeback matches and lost 12 in total. He would later join the Champions (senior) tour with more success.
- Michael Burgess

2 Mike Flynt
He is hardly a household name but his was far from an everyday feat. At the grand age of 59, Flynt returned to college football in the US, suiting up for the university he had last represented 37 years earlier.

His interest was piqued at a reunion with old team-mates, when he spoke of his regret at missing his senior year after being expelled from school for fighting. Flynt was still incredibly fit, having being a strength and conditioning coach at various colleges and the inventor of the Powerbase training system.

He was eventually persuaded to attempt a return. His wife claimed she was married to "Peter Pan" but eventually came round to the idea. They sold their house to move closer to the university and started training with the team at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, who play in division three of the NCAA.

Most thought he was crazy and risking serious injury. He was almost a decade older than the coach and both his children were older than any of his team-mates. Flynt eventually achieved his goal, playing in five matches at linebacker in the 2007 season before hanging up the boots. His deeds have since inspired others - Alan Moore was a 61-year-old grandfather when he turned out as kicker for a private university team in September.
- Michael Burgess

3 Cliff Lyons
Often seen as ahead of his time, Cliff Lyons was also a player who tried to defy father time. The Manly marvel first played for the Sea Eagles in 1986, after short stints at North Sydney and Leeds, and was still there 13 seasons later.

Never blessed with resounding pace, his ability to bemuse and confuse defenders before putting a team-mate into a gap was a thing of beauty. After four grand finals (including two victories) and a representative career for New South Wales and Australia, the veteran five-eighth reluctantly retired at the end of 1998 when the club did not extend his contract. But Manly endured a horror start to the 1999 season and Lyons was summoned back to Brookvale.

Just shy of his 38th birthday, and still sporting his trademark moustache and smoking a packet a day, Lyons played the full season in the toughest league competition in the world. He coped admirably, still producing moments of magic. A decade later, at the age of 48, Lyons turned out in A-grade football for local club Narrawena. He set up the first try and kicked a field goal to lead his team to victory.
- Michael Burgess

4 Al Oerter
Oerter was the first track and field athlete to claim four consecutive gold medals in the modern Olympic Games, winning the discus from 1956 to 1968, but it didn't stop another crack at glory in 1980.

Early that year, he threw a personal best 69.46m. The then 43-year-old went on to finish fourth in the US trials, failing to make the team which eventually boycotted Moscow - he missed selection by one place, just over a metre away from third. Oerter tore a calf muscle jogging before his last three throws in the 1984 trials and finally threw it in, so to speak, aged 50 in 1987.

As he told the New York Times, "the drug culture had taken over". It meant moving into senior ranks with a lighter discus which Oerter said felt "like a potato chip". Oerter made light of his triumphs, telling The Olympian magazine about his four gold medals: "The first one, I was really young; the second, not very capable; the third, very injured; the fourth, old."

He had no regrets about competing into middle age, once asking: "Have you ever seen a longer face than on an athlete who has quit in their prime?"
- Andrew Alderson

5 Mark Spitz
Famous for his seven swimming gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Spitz made a comeback at age 41. His attempt to get to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in the 100m butterfly failed when he was two seconds outside the qualifying time at the Olympic trials.

Old age no doubt played its part although those with a mind for mischief might point to the Samson effect: take away the legendary long lip moustache (it apparently disappeared in 1988) and with it goes the aura.

Spitz's original mo' took four months to grow as part of a dare with a coach. He intended to shave it off but, blessed with a marketing brain, he realised its value. Spitz claimed to have convinced the Russians that his upper lip bull-bar deflected water away from his mouth and caused his rear end to rise, getting him more speed through the water. He reckoned the following year, every (male) Russian sported a replica.

In 2006 Spitz narrated Freedom's Fury, a Hungarian documentary about their Olympic water polo team's "Blood in the Water" match against Russia during the 1956 revolution.

Executive produced by Quentin Tarantino and Lucy Liu, the film debuted at the Tribeca film festival.
- Andrew Alderson

6 Bob Simpson
The arrival of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket in April 1977 and subsequent rancour between the players and the Australian Cricket Board meant temporary bans. The selectors turned to Bob Simpson (41) to save them in series against India and the West Indies.

Simpson was one month shy of 10 years from his last test appearance and 20 years since his debut. Simpson led his team to a 3-2 victory in the six-test series against India, scoring 539 runs at 44.92. Best as an opener with Bill Lawry in his pomp, Simpson batted at five.

The faith in his technique against spin was well-placed by the selectors, as he scored two hundreds and two fifties. However, Australia were beaten 3-1 in five tests by the West Indies in early 1978. Simpson's form dipped, scoring 199 runs at 22. 11 against their famed pace quartet. He wasn't required to dust off the baggy green for Australia again but resurrected the Australian team as a coach in the 1980s with Allan Border as captain.
- Andrew Alderson

7 Michael Jordan
On March 18, 1995, His Airness' issued a simple two-word press release that rocked the sporting world - "I'm back". Arguably the greatest basketball player of all-time, Jordan had surprised everyone by retiring in late 1993 after leading his Chicago Bulls to three consecutive NBA titles.

Instead, he pursued his father's dream that Jordan would one day play Major League Baseball. He signed a minor-league contract with the Chicago White Sox and joined their Double-A affiliate, the Birmingham Barons.

Midway through the 1994-95 season, he returned to the Bulls and the following year, earned the first of another three consecutive titles. After retiring a second time in 1999, he became a part owner of the Washington Wizards and was enticed back on to the court for his new team in 2001.

While he couldn't carry them to the playoffs in either of the next two seasons, Jordan played every game of the 2002-03 schedule, averaging 20 points at age 40. These days, he's majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and makes an occasional appearance at practice to keep the youngsters honest.
- Grant Chapman

8 Lance Armstrong
Before 1996, Armstrong was a successful cyclist on the international circuit but hadn't quite cracked the sport's elite. He had been one of the youngest to win a world road championship in 1993 and had taken a couple of individual stages in the Tour de France but never threatened the overall classifications before he was diagnosed with the testicular cancer that would spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain.

After two months of treatment, including surgery to remove brain tumours, he began the road to recovery. By January 1998, he was training for a European campaign with the US Postal team and won four stages en route to his first Tour de France victory in 1999.

Armstrong would win seven in total but in a sport tainted by drug use, there were always suspicions the chemicals he took to aid his miraculous recovery from cancer had unfairly enhanced his abilities on the bike.

In 2005, he announced his retirement but returned to finish third behind Astana team-mate Alberto Contador in the 2009 Tour de France and trailed 23rd the following year after a series of crashes.
- Grant Chapman

9 Jim Palmer
Over a 20-year career with the Baltimore Orioles, Palmer won three World Series baseball crowns and three Cy Young Awards as the game's outstanding pitcher. He retired in 1984 but decided to dust off the glove again seven years later. After giving up five hits and two runs in two innings of a spring training game, Palmer (or Cakes' as he was known) realised he no longer had what it took to win at top level and left the mound for good.

While working out at the University of Miami one day, he was approached by a member of the college coaching staff, who didn't recognise him and suggested he would never make the Hall of Fame with a pitching action like that. Palmer had the satisfaction of replying, "I'm already in the Hall of Fame." He had been admitted the previous year.
- Grant Chapman

10 Niki Lauda
The reigning Formula One world champion had built a seemingly insurmountable lead in the 1976 standings, winning four of the season's first six races, when he crashed early in the German Grand Prix. His Ferrari burst into flames and Lauda was trapped in the wreckage, suffering severe burns to his head and lung damage.

Although he walked from the scene, he later fell into a coma, but returned to finish fourth at the Italian Grand Prix six weeks later. Despite the disfigurement suffered in the accident, Lauda only allowed enough reconstructive surgery to enable his eyelids to function normally. His scars and trademark cap remained with him the rest of his career. Although he narrowly lost the '76 championship to Briton James Hunt, Lauda captured his second title the following year and retired in 1979. Three years later, he returned and picked up his third world championship in 1984, before calling it quits 12 months later.
- Grant Chapman