• Michael Schumacher
  Retired: 2006 (age 37) Returned: 2009 (age 40)
• Lance Armstrong
  Retired: 2005 (age 34) Returned: 2008 (age 37)
• Michael Jordan
  Retired: 1998 (age 35) Returned: 2001 (age 38)

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In their prime, Michael Schumacher, Lance Armstrong and Michael Jordan decided the schedules of sports nuts (and those who made the folly of befriending them) on game days. They were like that, one of their kind, creating moments to store in the hard disk of the mind. They were blessed with supreme talent. They fused it with a stellar work ethic, steely mind, deep desire and decisive leadership, and stamped on it an imposing personality. To see their craft— day in, day out—was to see something of beauty. One day, expectedly, they left.

Some years later, unexpectedly, they came back. The world watched them then, for who they were. The world is watching again, in Armstrong and Schumacher’s case, to see what they have become. They are older, they are rusty, they may be softer. It makes the story all the more fascinating. If they could destroy the competition in their time, what can they do now, when the onset of age has chipped away at their skills, body and aura?

The Itch To Play

Schumacher, in a statement. But the ace also affirmed that he wouldn’t just be filling in: “The competitor that I am, I also very much look forward to facing this challenge.” Since retiring, Schumacher has been on Ferrari’s team as an advisor.

Comebacks in sport, there have been many. For many reasons, with many outcomes. Bjorn Borg came back, with his trusty wooden rackets, to earn money to sink into more losing businesses. Martina Navratilova returned at 43 to play and win doubles, partnering an 18-year-old, because she missed the pleasures and pains of competing; remarkably, she played till 49.

Another Martina, Hingis, lived her life backwards. At an age when she should have been in school, she was on a tennis court. And when she should have been on a tennis court, she wanted to go to school. She went. But she missed tennis so much there that she came back, finally getting the age and profession match right at 26.

But Schumacher will be 40, and away from top-flight competition for nearly three years now; he last drove an F1 car 18 months ago. Armstrong will be 38 when the next Tour de France—the centrepiece of the cycling season—comes around in July 2010. Jordan was 38 when he came back for the third time, with knees that wanted to secede from his legs. These champions have legacies to protect. Borg, where he was then, could afford to make an ass of himself. But Schumacher, Armstrong and Jordan, what were they thinking?

For most who see them, it doesn’t matter what they were thinking. It’s enough that they’re out there, not for an outing where the result is incidental, but for the real thing. They have traced, or will trace, paths that are deeply individual. But at the heart of it is the desire to compete at the highest level and to solve a puzzle that looks different from what it looked when they left.

Three Lives

Jordan turned new beginnings in sport into an art form. The first time he quit basketball was in 1993, in his prime, right after winning his third straight championship. Devastated by the murder of his father, he sought solace in the sport Jordan Sr wanted him to play: baseball. He found solace, but he also found he was a lousy baseball player. So, he went back to what he was good at, basketball, and won three more rings. He walked away again in 1998. Only to came back in 2001, this time to prop up a team—on its playing roster and in its P&L account—in which he had financial and managerial interests.

Each time, he returned a different player, with a seemingly evolved understanding of his game. In his first outing, he attacked the basket. Back from baseball, he lost the speed and ferociousness to create violence around the board, but found a sweet jump shot—and new ways to win. His third outing was all about trying to rediscover that jump shot and discover new ways to win. Each time, it made for compelling viewing.

As did Armstrong. In a sport that demands punishing levels of endurance, Armstrong was about 10 years older than the age at which road cyclists peak and a few months short of training. He didn’t set the pace, but he found smart ways to keep pace. He didn’t win the Tour, and he didn’t win the respect of his team leader, Alberto Contador. But he showed he belonged among the top five riders of the world. He made twice as many Americans watch what is a quintessentially European sport. And he’s left cycling fans with the mouth-watering prospect of one more crack at the Yellow Jersey and Contador—in a team and time that is completely of his making.

Even when he left in 2006, there was a feeling that Schumacher left a year, if not more, too soon. That season, his famed competitive and gamesmanship instincts were alive and on the edge. Like always, he was winning races, manufacturing stunning qualifying laps, and infuriating other drivers with his words and actions. And he took the championship battle to the final race of the season. How Schumacher drives this season, where the premium on driving skill is more than it has ever been in the last 10-15 years, will be intriguing.

For all his greatness, Schumacher might end up being passed by drivers who were toddlers when he was on his first F1 drive. And when he bobs up and down on an insane French Alps climb next July, Armstrong might not resemble a cat climbing a tree. Regardless, the world will watch.