Jeff Farrell
Santa Barbara, Calif.

It was the middle of a night in July 2005. Olympic gold medal swimmer Jeff Farrell woke up briefly and felt curiously dizzy. Farrell mentioned it to his wife, Gabrielle, but then shrugged it off. She, however, felt a tinge of worry.

She called their son, Marco, Farrell's business partner in real estate, and asked him to encourage Farrell to see his doctor. Marco told his dad to humor his mother. "She'll feel better if you go," he said.

Several EKG's later, doctors discovered an irregular heartbeat and a nearly worn out aortic valve. Farrell had a triple bypass in December and was sporting a new valve, donated from a cow. He was already thinking about getting back in the pool just as he had done earlier that year after a surgeon had repaired his right shoulder. But Gabrielle was hesitant, worrying that swimming was just too hard on Farrell's 71-year-old body.

So for nine months, Farrell stayed out of the pool until finally Gabrielle realized that her husband, who in 1959 and 1960 broke 25 national and world records, was miserable. She gave him the green light, and in late 2006 he began training again. In 2007, the year he turned 70, Farrell garnered morethan 30 first-place finishes in both his signature events the 50- and 100-meter freestyle as well as others.

This year, Farrell shaved .66 seconds off his 2007 time in the 50-yard freestyle at the U.S. Masters Short Course Nationals in May, clocking in at 24.13 seconds, a national age-group record. Farrell also set a national record for the 100-yard freestyle at that meet with a time of 56.05 seconds.

Perhaps Farrell's impressive return to swimming can be chalked up to the fact that he's had experience with comebacks. In 1960, when he was considered the fastest swimmer in the world due to his 50-meter freestyle times, he nearly missed the Olympic trials after he was diagnosed with acute appendicitis six days before the event.

Farrell refused the U.S. Olympic committee's offer to compete later against the U.S. team's slowest competitor, feeling it would be unfair. Nonetheless, he ended up coming home from the 1960 Rome Olympics with two gold medals from anchoring the U.S. 400-and 800-meter medley relay teams.

Sharon Thornton
Hot Springs, Ark

When Sharon Thornton first returned to basketball after the second of two hip replacements, she couldn't bend over to pick up the ball. Now a year later, the 62-year-old can do a layup and even a little jump shot. Not that she's supposed to. Her surgeon told her to give up any sports that involve running or jumping. But that was too much to ask. "Life's short," she said with a sigh. "So why not do what you enjoy?"

Still, Thornton is aware that her body is not quite the same. She walks rather than runs during warm-up drills and she subs in and out rather than playing a whole quarter for her team, the Arkansas Diamonds. But when she's in the game, Thornton plays as hard as anyone. "People's mouths fall open when they hear after the game that I've had two hip replacements," she said.

Before the surgeries, Thornton often played in pain and used a cane to walk. She had her left hip replaced in January 2006 and was told it would take her a year to rehabilitate.

But three months later she competed in "Nothin' But Net," a senior 3-on-3 tournament held in March in Arkansas. Six months later, Thornton had her right hip done. Again, she was back on the court within months.

By 2008, she was playing as well as ever and her team recently qualified for the 2009 National Senior Games in San Francisco.