Retirement & Comebacks in sport

When is it a good time to retire? It took me three times to finally retire from sport. The first time I retired was because I had reached my goal of playing in the Olympics and thought there was nothing left to do in the sport. The second time I retired was because I thought I was getting old (37 y.o) and I should take care of my back (screws had held it together since '92). When I retired the third time, at age 41, it was for the right reasons - I had a new passion and new goals to finally convince me to put away the competition cozzie/togs/bathers/swimsuit for good.
Australian, Geoff Huegill, just announced his comeback to swimming with aims to swim in 2010 Commonwealth Games. He cites is health and weight as a major reason for returning to swimming and also feels he has unfinished business.
Lance Armstrong is making his official comeback to competitive cycling in January in South Australia for the 2009 Tour Down Under. His reasons seem to be more about raising awareness for cancer, than cycling per se.
And Layne Beachley, Queen of the surf, 7 times world champion, recently announced her retirement, excited about the business opportunities ahead of her.
Each athlete will have their own reasons for retiring, returning or even staying in sport. I think it's important for an individual to wisely consider their motivation for either - is it positive and towards something they want to do, or is it motivated by pain, moving away from an undesired situation eg lack of success outside of sport. Having a positive direction to move towards is inevitably a more empowering motivation that produces results.
A key to successful transition is identity. I realised my identity was wrapped in being a sportsperson and as long as that remained, I always floated back to that. Once I learnt to identify myself as something new - a business person and entrepreneur, it was easy to change my actions, my results and therefore my life.