Back in December I heard the news that Venus Williams would be making her return to tennis, at the age of 45, via a wildcard entry to the Australian Open. This led me to reflect on comebacks more generally: why do athletes return to competition when the chances of objective success are so low? And what separates comebacks that are adaptive and cathartic, to those that are destabilising? While we have seen comebacks play out for years in elite sport, we also see it in recreati
