Michael Phelps has come out of retirement because since giving up swimming because he has put on some weight.
Steven Hendry is considering coming out of retirement due to a change in the rules of snooker.
Frequently anybody who wins an win Olympic gold (or, nowadays, silver or bronze) says "right, that's it!". Now pay me my £5 million cornflake/dodgy vitamin pill ad dealoh give me a series and ITV2 and I'm done....Oh no, I won't be repaying any of my national sponsorship and investment in me, and I will be boring you on the TV commentary circuit for the rest of my natural life.
Steve Davis has never gone into retirement.
All these people who retire too young to protect their legacy of invincibility are chambers of egomania, too concerned about their legacy of, in the case of swimmers/athletes, flash-in-the-pan brilliance.
We can all be flash in the pans. That's not the challenge of life.
The greatest gift a Steve Davis can give is to keep trying, show hard work, keep enjoying something that you can do, and if you happen to unfortunately give your young opponents a story about the day he beat the Davis, then that's a great gift.
The rest of them should get over it, and get over themselves.
They are too scared about damaging their boring autobiographies.
What is reputation anyway?
You can't eat it and it won't win you a game of snooker or a 100 metre butterfly.
Find something you can do and keep doing it.
If you don't have anything ready to take its place, don't give it up.
Stop living your own obituary.
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