An article in Live Science gives some insight into why athletes such as Dara Torres, Brett Favre and Lance Armstrong decide to come back to the sport after retiring.
With Armstrong, he never really left the limelight since he was either competing in the New York or Boston Marathon, running around with Matthew McConaughey or dating various celebrities. Lance could not escape that he was still associated with his old identity of a seven time Tour de France winner who overcame cancer. The highs reached by breaking records can’t really be matched in retired life, so a return to cycling is in order to get that feeling back for one more time.
”After all the adulation and excitement wear off and elite athletes come face to face with retirement and a more mundane life, they suffer a sense of loss, almost like a death,” said sport psychologist John F. Murray. “If you’re Lance Armstrong, you realize that what you are is a cyclist, that is your identity, and if you feel you have one or two more titles in you, why let it go? Why not tackle unresolved challenges? Competing at that level provides a high that is hard to match. How can you not be addicted to that?”
Now that Paolo Bettini and Erik Zabel are retiring, do you think they will come back in a couple of years yearning for more wins?
http://www.livescience.com/culture/080927-sports-retirement.html