| STEPHENHENDRY | Scottish snooker player who came out of retirement at the 2021 World Championship to win his first match in nine years (7,6) |
| MURPHY | Shaun, English snooker player who lost to Mark Selby in the 2021 World Championship final (6) |
| GEORGEFOREMAN | Boxer who defeated Joe Frazier in 1973 to win his first world heavyweight title |
| ELLIE | British gymnast who recently announced her retirement at the age of 23, _ Downie (5) |
| MANGIAPANE | Calgary's Andrew ___ came up big at the 2021 worlds |
| BAMA | Loser of the 2021 national championship to the Georgia Bulldogs, informally |
| MCGILL | Anthony, Scottish snooker player who eliminated Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2021 world championships (6) |
| RESETYOUR | Come out of retirement at a different time (5,4,5) |
| ALARM | Come out of retirement at a different time (5,4,5) |
| PHILADELPHIA | For which film did Tom Hanks win his first Oscar? (12) |
| SPECTATORS | Steps actor used to win his audience (10) |
| SHAUN | ..... Murphy, runner-up in snooker's 2021 World Championship (5) |
| NCAA | Group whose biggest winner is Stanford, with 136 sports championships to date: Abbr. |
| NOR | ...and not nervous of retirement at first |
| MICHAELPHELPS | US swimmer who came out of retirement in 2014 to swim at the Rio Olympics: 2 wds. |
| MARSHAWNLYNCH | Beast Mode running back who came out of retirement in 2017 to play for the Oakland Raiders: 2 wds. |
| BENFOSTER | English international goalkeeper who came out of retirement to help Wrexham secure promotion from the National League |
| JOHNHIGGINS | Scottish snooker player who won the first of his four world titles in 1998 |
| DIAZ | Cameron who came out of retirement for the upcoming Netflix movie Back in Action |
| HENDRY | Scottish snooker player who won the World Championship seven times in the 1990s (7,6) |
