The lure of the Olympic comeback

Some grand plans crash, some inspire, while others appear ludicrous as the lure of the Olympics leads to many sporting comebacks.

GRANT HACKETT

The esteemed Australian swimmer's comeback sank spectacularly. In a whirlpool of nipple twists and alcohol, Hackett came unstuck on many levels after failing to win a 4x200m freestyle relay spot at the Adelaide selection trials in April. The triple Olympic champion, now 36, assaulted a fellow plane passenger in behaviour the swimmer described as "disgraceful and disgusting". Hackett sought alcohol counselling but denied any link to the prescription drugs that dogged him earlier in his swim career.

DANIEL SMITH

It was Smith who took Hackett's spot on the Rio relay team. And it is Smith who is making a greater comeback than arguably any Olympian.

Four years ago, the Gold Coast swimmer was a drug addict.

"That was my life. I didn't have any concept of swimming," he says.

Now he's an Olympian, fulfilling a promise he made himself as a five-year-old: to swim for Australia.

Smith was on that path as a star junior, being compared to Hackett and the great Ian Thorpe. Then he went off the rails.

Or as he puts it: "I have been to hell and back."

TESS LLOYD

The Australian sailor returned from a different kind of hell only to fall agonisingly short of making it to Rio.

In 2012, Lloyd was sailing her skiff when she was struck in the head by a windsurfer.

She spent three weeks in a coma, underwent brain surgery, and was then told by doctors she would never sail again.

But Lloyd recovered and, with 49erFX crewmate Caitlin Elks, was on the cusp of selection.

They were the best performed crew but Australian sailing hierarchy didn't enter the event in the Olympics, saying Lloyd and Elks hadn't met baseline performance standards.

They appealed, but lost.

MICHAEL PHELPS

The most successful of all Olympians, with 18 gold medals, has been there and done that. But American swim icon Michael Phelps wants another Olympic-sized hit.

After quitting in 2012, Phelps got the bug again little more than a year later.

Now he's swimming world-best times and has secured another Olympics berth at the United States selection trials.

Phelps will become the first male swimmer to compete at five Olympic Games.

"I'm 30-years-old and swimming almost faster than I ever have before," Phelps says.

MICHAEL POWELL

Sure, he's 52 years old. But the US long jumper isn't bashful about his comeback.

"I am the Beethoven of the long jump," he says, dismissive of the current batch of jumpers.

"It's pathetic, I have watched these people jump.... I know I can beat them. No other sport has fallen behind the way the long jump has."

Powell is a triple world champ but doesn't feel complete without an Olympic gold - he won silver in 1988 and 1992.

His 1991 mark of 8.95 metres remains the world record.

ARIES MERRITT

Filed under amazing medical comebacks is the American reigning Olympic 110m hurdles champion.

Merritt recently raced again, just 248 days after undergoing a kidney transplant.

The 30-year-old hopes his recovery leads to the Rio Olympics and a fairytale - nah, Hollywood - finish.

"If I won, it would just be a movie for sure," said Merritt, who is also the current world record holder in his pet event.

"Even if I make the team it will still be a huge story. No one in history has ever had a kidney transplant and competed (at an Olympics) in the same calendar year."

BRAD WIGGINS

The English cycling megastar is making a comeback of sorts - to the track.

Wiggins won Olympic track cycling gold in 2004 and 2008.

And four years ago in London, he won on the road - remarkably just 12 days after his Tour de France win.

Now Wiggins, aged 36, is returning to the track and will lead the Poms in an expected grudge match against Australia in the team pursuit in Rio.