Retire

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Dear TomHa,

I guess whenever any great sporting icon retires, there will be a tinge of sadness overflowing in the hearts of his followers. Afterall, sporting greats inspire confidence, superiority and many other emotions which my failing vocabulary could not describe at the current moment. When Michael Jordan retired, I admit that I felt so sad, it was as if my world was ripped apart. But luckily, when he retired, Lance Armstrong came about, inspiring a new era and defining new meanings to the word "impossible." But he is human noentheless and retired too. Pete Sampras, Micahel Johnson, Zizou, even Fandi Ahmad inspired this tinge of sadness in me. Now, Ian Thorpe had retired from swimming at age 24. No more Thorpe-Phelps rivalry, no more Thorpe-van Hoogenband(I hope I got the spelling right) rivalry. Well, at least he did not retire against a backdrop of failing sporting achievements.