In 2008 the most successful female golfer announced a press conference at which she was to tell the world of her planned retirement from active competition and her desire to spend time on other things. With that the sequence of events the sporting world learned that Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam was bringing to a close her playing career, albeit she would remain involved with the game in a variety of ways. At the time the news was big, as was the sense of anticipation about the press conference, even if there was little surprise about the news when it came.
But such was Annika’s importance to the ladies game since she first made her mark in 1991, it was a newsworthy event in itself as she shared her thoughts with her numerous fans;
Sorenstam was a winner of 72 LPGA. Tournaments, ranking third on the career list of wins behind Kathy Whitworth (88) and Mickey Wright (82). She also won 10 majors, 8 LPGA. Player of the Year awards, 8 money-winning titles and 6 Vare Trophies for lowest scoring average. Since making her 1994 debut, she has won $22,081,561, the most by any female professional. In 2003, Annika was inducted into the LPGA and World Golf Tour Halls of Fame.
Ironically the player who was taking her spot on top of the LPGA leader boards was Lorena Ochoa, who surprisingly announced her decision to leave the game two years after Annika stood back, believing at 28 years of age there were other interests outside golf. The sporting world came to hear about it first through her official website where it said;:
"Lorena Ochoa confirms her retirement from the LPGA, as news reports in some media have said today,"
"The reasons and more details on the matter will be given by Lorena personally in a press conference on Friday in Mexico City. Lorena will share this news of a new stage in her life with her sponsors, family members and friends."
In the United States last week basket NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal retired, at the age of 39, after 19 seasons in the game where he had remained a dominant force since first arriving as a draft pick by the Orlando Magic in 1992. In his first season, O'Neal won NBA Rookie of the Year and was selected as a part of the all-star team.
His achievements continued on from that impressive start and ended with a career total of 28,596 points, the fifth highest in NBA history. As he retires O’Neal retains the second all-time All-Star Game appearances with 15, has won three NBA Finals MVP’s and three NBA All-Star Game appearances. More importantly though, Shaq has four NBA Championship rings and sits on basketball career earnings of over $292 million. Unusually, his retirement plan is to complete a Doctorate in human resource development.
For someone planning a future role in HR, the sporting world learned of Shaq’s decision on the social network website, Twitter, where he did not even come close to using up the 140 character limit saying, "im retiring". To be fair, Shaq held a very amusing press conference at his home a few days later which was broadcast live, allowing him deliver an entertaining farewell. A very fitting way to mark the end of 19 years in the game.
In the case of cyclist Lance Armstrong his second retirement, or “2.0” as he called it, was done by telephone and followed up with a taped interview from his office in Austin, Texas. But given it was not the first time he was leaving the sport, perhaps the lack of novelty demanded nothing more. Or the fear that other controversies that dogged his later career might have dominated the chance to say goodbye on his terms.
Whatever Armstrong's decision the advent of more instant messaging systems, and the onslaught of social networking sites into our daily life, has seemingly relegated the immediacy of TV somewhat in these announcements It also shows a trend that seems to be evolving with another iconic sportsman – Tiger Woods - preferring to share changes in his commercial management with a simple message to his 985,000 tweeps.
In the wake of the departure of his long term manager, Mark Steinberg, from sports management giant, IMG , the former world number one golfer, Woods announced he too was leaving the company he had been with for 12 years.. His message simply read; “Total confidence in him. Excited about the next stage in my professional life. Fond memories of Mark McCormack”.
Hard to imagine that IMG founder, McCormack, would have been a fan of Twitter, as it was under his guidance that the company came to dominate the sports management world. For
Woods it was the obvious place to join when he turned professional in August 1996, where Steinberg became his agent, sharing a close relationship ever since. In reality the decision is not expected to change much – on or off the course – and is a natural progression given Steinberg’s new direction away from IMG. So much so that Tiger Woods could deliver the update in 81 characters on Twitter, reflecting his total lack of concern it seems.
Unlike Tiger and IMG, Shaq has always done things his own way and over the years has been very media savvy, embracing the social media world with greater ease. Indeed, he would have not missed the value of his retirement "exclusive" to his 3.8 million followers on Twitter one bit. Nor would he have been anything but amused making his announcement in the middle of the NBA Finals, where his former employers, Miami Heat, are fully engrossed this week.
In addition, by making the announcement via Twitter, O’Neal retained control over the news and could enjoy the fans feedback from the comfort of his poolside - should his self esteem been struggling with the decision. But that seemed unlikely as the big man leads the Twitter followers table in the sporting world globally, 500,000 ahead of Brazilian footballer Kaka.
And such was his planning that he had generated a special hashtag along with his announcement message, #ShaqRetires.
Might have been easier to just hashtag #Pure Genius.
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