Goodbye to the GOAT: 2022 saw the retirement of several of the world’s Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) athletes. Roger Federer left tennis in September, following Serena Williams’ departure in September after competing in the US Open. Sebastian Vettel spun doughnuts on his way out after the November Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Shaun White got out of competitive snowboarding. And Tom Brady left the NFL early in the year — only to return a few months later. And Argentinian star Lionel Messi stirred rumors of retiring from international football after leading Argentina to a legendary World Cup victory at the end of last year, but signaled he will retire before the next World Cup.

Athletes that earn the GOAT title are like walking gods to their fans. Their posters adorn walls and their names alone can sell out matches. As audiences, we often mark our lives by their sporting triumphs and losses and feel genuine sadness when they hang up their boots/rackets/bats.

GOATs seemed to jump on the Great Resignation trend in 2022: Much fuss was made over an apparent mass exit from the workforce in 2021, as some workers reevaluated their priorities post-pandemic. Close to 47 mn individuals are believed to have voluntarily left their jobs in the US in 2021, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Could it be that following periods of lockdown and time away from their sports and the limelight, athletes also found the desire to follow new paths in their lives, away from the field? Did they postpone their retirements in the pandemic years so they could go out on a high note when the sporting world reopened? That, or it’s just pure coincidence.

Sport isn’t known for its lengthy careers: The typical retirement age for a professional athlete is between 28 and 32, writes Gary Brickley, senior sports lecturer at the University of Brighton, in The Conversation. This is the age when injuries and illness tend to set in, fitness levels decline, or family takes precedence.

And yet many of the latest wave of departing GOATs continued to compete (and win) well beyond what was once considered their “prime.” Federer and Williams both called time on their grand-slam careers aged 41, while Vettel, Messi, and White are all in their mid-30s. NFL star Brady is a GOAT Snr, retiring (and then returning to play) at the age of 45. Among the more notable older GOATs is American surfer Kelly Slater, who’s still hanging ten at the age of 50. So what’s this generation of GOATs’ secret to staying at the top of their game for longer?

#1- GOATs these days are far from the rockstar athletes of the past. The wild child persona athletes of the past may have cultivated is no longer associated with GOATs. British F1 champion James Hunt drank heavily, smoked, and partied — often just before getting into his racecar. He died from a heart attack at the age of 45. Less than a decade later, 38-year-old seven-time F1 Championship champion Lewis Hamilton follows a strictly plant-based diet, does daily pilates, and turns his phone off by 6pm.

#2- It’s a tech thing. “Today’s athletes have faster skis, more aerodynamic bikes, lighter shoes, high-performance swimsuits and so much more,” says David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene. He compares Olympic runner Jesse Owens, who set the 100m world record in 1936, to Usain Bolt, who beat Owens’ record by 14 feet in 2009. Tech advances meant that Bolt was running on carpet specifically designed to help the sprinters to go as fast as possible. Owens, on the other hand, “ran on cinders and had to dig a hole with a trowel” for starting blocks. Take away the tech and Bolt and Owens would have been within a single stride of each other, says Epstein.

#3- Approaches to training have changed. Athletes once focused on high-intensity training designed to push them to their limits in the most time-efficient manner. Today, the emphasis is on strength and endurance, targeting specific weaknesses in moderate-intensity sessions, writes sports academic Brickley. Better recovery techniques, nutrition, and mental health care also help maintain performance and peak health.

This is all good news for the GOATs: Innovation and changing attitudes have allowed some of sport’s all-time greats to continue their careers well into their later years, becoming revered veterans with a wealth of knowledge and experience to show for it. To those who hung up their caps in 2022, we salute you for pushing the limits of sporting achievement — and entertaining and inspiring us in the process.