To become a top professional athlete some individuals have to overcome a lot of adversity (injury, illness or personal issue) just to be able to compete at the elite level.
So to continue to highlight those more remarkable comebacks in sports, here is a list of 10 more additional stories carrying over from last week.
Rick Ankiel: The first player in the MLB since Babe Ruth to have hit over 50 home runs and win over 10 games as a pitcher. In 1999, Ankiel emerged into the majors posting a solid rookie season with an 11-7 record to go with 194 strikeouts. Over the next two seasons Ankiel struggled with injuries. Because of this Ankiel abandoned pitching and then began to work his way back up to the “bigs” as an outfielder to once again land a roster spot with the St. Louis Cardinals in August 2007.
Ankiel is the only active Major Leaguer to have played as a full-time pitcher and position player, other than Babe Ruth, and to start as a pitcher and hit a home run in the post-season. Ankiel currently plays for the Atlanta Braves.
Ricky Williams: Testing positive for marijuana and violating the NFL’s drug substance policy is what ultimately sent Williams into early retirement in 2004, even though he was still at the time one of the most dominant runningbacks in the game. After taking a spiritual quest, Williams returned to the gridiron first playing with Toronto Argonauts in the CFL before returning to Miami and a season-ending injury in 2007. As the back-up to Ronnie Brown, it looked like Williams would never get his shot at starting running back; however, Brown suffered a season-ending injury and Williams capitalized on the situation rushing for 1,121 yards, to set an NFL record for longest time between seasons to rush for a 1,000 yards at six years.
Saku Koivu: The longest-serving captain in Canadiens history, tied at 10 years with Jean Beliveau, was diagnosed with cancer at the start of the 2001/2002 season which had many critics writing his season off. Yet Koivu persevered, managing to return for the final three games of the regular season to lead the Canadiens in the playoffs in scoring. Since being diagnosed with cancer the Finnish product has gone on to play in an additional 500 hockey games over nine seasons since with Montreal, Anaheim and TPS Turku during the lockout. To give back to the Montreal General Hospital where he was treated, the 27th captain in Canadiens franchise history decided to create a foundation in his name to raise $8 million to purchase a PET scan (Positron Emission Tomography) for the hospital.
Martina Navratilova: At the age of 41 after being retired from singles play for a decade, Navratilova made her comeback advancing to the second round at Wimbledon in 2004. Ironically, it was in doubles play where the Hall of Famer found success in her “second swing,” winning the mixed-doubles crown at both Wimbledon and the Aussie Open in 2003. To close out her career for the second time, Navratilova and partner Bob Bryan would win the 2006 U.S. Open mixed-doubles title in her final doubles match.
Ric Flair: The Nature Boy’s career almost came to a crash, literally, before it even got started back in the mid 1970s. At the age of 24 while travelling with fellow wrestlers Johnny Valentine and promoter David Crockett from Charlotte heading to Wilmington, N.C., the little single Cessna plane they were in ran out of gas causing the plane to crash from 4,000 ft. onto train tracks near Wilmington. Flair suffered a broken back caused from the crash but he, unlike most of the others, would return to the ring to wrestle for 40 more years winning 16 World Heavyweight titles along the way. Wooooo!
Lance Armstrong: After successfully battling testicular cancer, Lance Armstrong returned to cycling to set a record by winning seven Tour de France titles. Armstrong would make a second return to cycling from retirement in 2009 to promote Global Cancer but wasn’t as successful as his first attempt as he would only finish third in that year’s Tour de France.
Rocky Bleier: Wounded in both legs from the Vietnam War, where he earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, the halfback Robert “Rocky” Bleier made his return second tour with the Steelers in 1971 after playing with them previously in 68’. Bleier in the ‘70s was a contributing star to the Steelers’ winning four Super Bowls, scoring a touchdown in Pitt’s 1978 victory. He finished as the fourth-leading rushing in franchise history over the course of his career with his best season coming in 1976 when he rushed for 1,036 yards.
Mario Lemieux: The only thing that was able to slow down Lemieux was Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes and laundry list of injuries. If not, Lemieux might have broken Gretzky’s records. At the start of the 1992-93 season Pittsburgh led by Lemieux were in fine form in hopes of trying to win their third straight Stanley Cup. Lemieux was on pace for both of Gretzky’s record of 92 goals and 215 points in a season. January ‘93 is when Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, forcing him to miss two months for radiation treatments. Throughout the rest of Lemiux’s career he’d never be fully healthy again as he also had herniated spinal discs, chronic tendinitis of a hip-flexor muscle and also chronic back pain and abnormal heart rhythm (arterial fibrillation) yet he became the NHL’s seventh-ranked all-time scorer with 690 goals. Lemieux finished his career by winning two Stanley Cups and Conn Smythe Trophies, six Art Ross Trophies, three Hart Trophies and an Olympic Gold Medal in 2002.
Billy Martin: Any individual who manages to maintain a job with the same organization after being fired five times will get some recognition in this list, especially when the one who is doing the hiring and firing is York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. Between the ‘70s and ‘80s (1975-79, 1983, 1985 and 1988) Billy Martin was hired and fired five times by Steinbrenner as the New York Yankees manager.
Gordie Howe: After a magnificent career with the Detroit Red Wings, Mr. Hockey came out of retirement after a long NHL to play hockey with his two sons in the mid-‘70s in the World Hockey Association. Then after this stint in 1979, Howe returned to play once again in the NHL for the Hartford Whalers at the age of 51. Howe also signed a one-game contract with the Detroit Vipers of the IHL in 1997 at the age of 71 to claim that he dressed for a hockey game in at least six decades.