A crash, an illness, a ban, an operation nobody comes back from. Each of these athletes was written off, and each returned to win something afterwards. The medical charts are not comparable and neither are the sports, which is exactly what makes it an argument.
1Muhammad AliRegained the heavyweight title in Zaire after three and a half years banned from boxing.1000pts
2Tiger WoodsWon the 2019 Masters after four back operations and eleven years without a major.882pts
3Michael JordanLeft basketball for baseball, came back, and won three more NBA titles.656pts
4Ronaldo NazárioMissed most of two seasons with ruptured knee tendons, then scored eight goals to win the 2002 World Cup and the Golden Boot.519pts
5Monica SelesReturned to win a Grand Slam title after being stabbed on court in 1993.474pts
6Andy MurrayPlayed on for five more years after a metal hip resurfacing in 2019.474pts
7Bernard KingTore his ACL at his scoring peak in 1985, missed nearly two years and came back to make the All-Star team again in 1991.474pts
8Peyton ManningWon a Super Bowl after neck surgery left him unable to throw a spiral.424pts
9Petra KvitovaWon a Grand Slam final place again after a knife attack damaged the tendons in her playing hand.424pts
10Alonzo MourningPlayed again after a 2003 kidney transplant and won the 2006 NBA title with the Miami Heat.424pts
11Damar HamlinSuffered a cardiac arrest on the field in January 2023 and was back playing for the Buffalo Bills that September.424pts
12Niki LaudaRaced again six weeks after the 1976 Nurburgring crash that gave him the last rites.368pts
13Serena WilliamsSurvived a pulmonary embolism after childbirth in 2017 and reached a Grand Slam final nine months later.368pts
14Magic JohnsonReturned to the NBA All-Star Game and the Olympics after announcing his HIV diagnosis.368pts
15Christian EriksenReturned to international football with an implanted defibrillator after a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.368pts
16Andre AgassiFell to 141st in the world in 1997, then won five more Grand Slam titles and returned to number one.368pts
17Dara TorresCame out of retirement twice and won three Olympic silver medals at 41 at Beijing 2008, missing gold by a hundredth of a second.368pts
18Marc MárquezWon the 2025 MotoGP title with Ducati, his first in six years, after a 2020 arm fracture that needed four operations.368pts
19George ForemanRegained the heavyweight title at 45, twenty years after losing it.368pts
20Alex ZanardiLost both legs in a 2001 CART crash, then won four Paralympic gold medals in handcycling at London 2012 and Rio 2016.368pts
21Robert KubicaReturned to Formula 1 after a rally crash that nearly severed his right arm.368pts
22Paolo RossiReturned from a two-year ban just before the 1982 World Cup and scored six goals, including a hat-trick against Brazil, to win it for Italy.303pts
23Ben HoganWon six more majors after a head-on collision with a bus nearly killed him in 1949.303pts
24Kim ClijstersWon the US Open as an unranked wildcard and a mother, two years after retiring.303pts
25Jennifer CapriatiTeenage prodigy whose career stalled amid burnout and a 1994 drug arrest, then won three Grand Slam titles in 2001 and 2002 and reached number one.303pts
26Hermann MaierWon the 2004 overall World Cup two years after a motorcycle crash almost cost him his right leg.303pts
27Josh HamiltonFirst overall draft pick who lost three seasons to drug and alcohol addiction, then won the 2010 American League MVP.303pts
28Alex SmithPlayed in the NFL again after 17 operations and a leg infection that nearly cost his life.303pts
29Bethany HamiltonReturned to competitive surfing and won a national title after losing an arm to a shark.228pts
30Mario LemieuxCame back from Hodgkin's lymphoma and radiation to win the NHL scoring title the same season.228pts
31Greg LeMondWon the 1989 Tour de France by eight seconds, two years after a hunting accident left dozens of shotgun pellets in his body.228pts
32Rocky BleierWounded in the leg in Vietnam and told he would never play again, then won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers.141pts
33Tedy BruschiReturned to the New England Patriots linebacker corps eight months after a stroke in 2005.141pts
34Eric AbidalLifted the 2011 Champions League trophy, handed the armband by Carles Puyol, two months after surgery for a liver tumour.0pts
35Tyson FuryGave up his titles in 2016 amid depression and a failed cocaine test, returned in 2018 and beat Deontay Wilder in their 2020 rematch.
36Valentino RossiBroke his right tibia at Mugello in 2010, raced again 43 days later and won the Malaysian Grand Prix that same season.
Photo credits
- Ronaldo Nazário — Lula Oficial, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Alonzo Mourning — Keith Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Serena Williams — Tourism Victoria from Australia, CC BY 2.0
- Andre Agassi — Shinya Suzuki from New York, U.S.A., CC BY 2.0
- Dara Torres — Original image: Bryan Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Marc Márquez — Denkmit, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Alex Zanardi — Brunhild Media, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Jennifer Capriati — daramot, CC BY 2.0
- Hermann Maier — Manfred Werner / Tsui, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Josh Hamilton — Keith Allison on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Alex Smith — Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Greg LeMond — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Rocky Bleier — Jim Greenhill from McLean, USA, CC BY 2.0
- Tedy Bruschi — RanZag, CC BY 2.0
- Valentino Rossi — RaúlBlancoRueda, CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments 2
Emergency caesarean on 1 September 2017, multiple clots in her lungs, six weeks unable to leave a bed, then the Wimbledon final in July: https://youpick.best/articles/serena-williams-ranked-many-ways
YP
ypb-teamAug 21A resurfaced hip in 2019, a final title that year and five more seasons on tour. The comeback side of a sixteen-list profile: https://youpick.best/articles/andy-murray-ranked-many-ways
YP
ypb-teamOct 23
