Early Retirees...Is It a New Trend?

In the last 24 hours, one of the top female golfers (Annika Sorenstam) and one of the worlds top ranked female tennis players (Justine Henin) both announced their retirement. Henin is only 25 years old and has a pretty strong resume. She was won seven Grand Slam titles and spent over 100 weeks ranked as the world's number one player. Sorenstam is a little older, 37 years old, but she plays a sport where an athlete's age tends to have a higher ceiling. Sorenstam is one of the most dominate and decorated female golfers ever. She has won 72 tournaments, 10 majors and even teed up against the men. Many called Sorenstam more dominant in her sport then Tiger Woods is in his. In fact, despite an early retirement, Woods said he thinks Sorenstam is the greatest female golfer of all-time. That is quite a compliment from a player who might just be the greatest golfer ever.

With these two sudden retirements from two of the best female athletes of our day, you have to wonder if this might become a trend. No longer does an athlete have to keep playing in order to financially support themselves. With today's advertising deals, endorsements, contracts and winning money, an athlete can have one or two dominant years and be set for life as far as money goes. That means athletes have the ability, if they aren't too greedy for more money, to play solely because they love the training, game and competition. Once that disappears, there really isn't any other reason to play. These two retirements are big, but they will not be headlines in the morning paper. But if in fact this becomes a trend, whose to say Kobe Bryant won't call it quits if he wins the NBA championship this year. I mean, he won the MVP and will have lead a team to the top (on his own), so whats left to prove?