The prospects for the 2001 season were considerably less than glorious for New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens. He was 38 years old and coming off a middling 13-8 season.

	At 38 years old, Roger Clemens has had his best season and likely will win his sixth Cy Young Award.

And then Clemens reached back and fired a season for the ages. He is 20-2, with a 3.48 earned-run average and 201 strikeouts in 209 innings. He has broken records that have lasted for a century. Clemens turned 39 on Aug. 4, but no one is suggesting he's washed up anymore.

The key to Clemens' renaissance, and an expected sixth Cy Young Award, is his muscle maintenance. While doctors say humans can't increase the number of our muscle fibers, we can work to maintain the ones we have. Clemens has a legendary workout routine that has left more than a few teammates spewing. There is distance running -- Clemens says he can still break 20 minutes for a three-mile run -- intensive weight training, agility drills, 600 abdominal crunches each day and an array of other painful contortions.

"You can't stop the clock of aging completely," said Dr. Peter Jokl, professor of orthopedics at Yale University School of Medicine, "but you can slow it down. Today's athletes train more than they ever have. With more sophisticated techniques and the new knowledge in nutrition, they can perform better for longer. I'm convinced we'll see someone in their 40s break the four-minute mile.

"We're pushing age back in our culture, particularly in sports."

Michael Jordan is trying to push back time. At 38 years old, he has returned to the NBA, to play for the otherwise youthful Washington Wizards. Jordan hasn't maintained the rigorous training regime that helped to become the game's greatest player. And he has often been seen enjoying the pleasures of success with a cigar in either hand or mouth.

Yet for the second time in his career, and this time following a three-year layoff, Jordan has said retirement has not been in him. His love of the game has brought him back to the court. But is this internal calling, this peckoning back to competition, too late?

The sporting landscape is littered with 30-something athletes, and today there are even a significant number of 40-something athletes out there. Baseball, perhaps the least demanding sport in terms of sustained explosion, is graying gracefully around the temples.

Three players who seem destined to become Hall of Famers on the first ballot, are all making headlines this month as they take what amounts to a victory lap: The Baltimore Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr., 41, Tony Gwynn, also 41, of the San Diego Padres and 42-year-old Rickey Henderson, also of the Padres.

Henderson, probably the greatest leadoff hitter ever, is one run short of tying Ty Cobb's major-league record of 2,245. He also is five hits shy of reaching the 3,000 mark. Earlier this season, he passed Babe Ruth for the all-time lead in walks. All this from an outfielder that went unsigned during the offseason and joined the Padres in mid-March.

Earlier this season left-handed pitcher Jesse Orosco -- who had already appeared in more games than anyone in major-league history -- was called up by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Orosco's age? A Satchel Paigesque 44.

Football has its share of George Blanda wannabes. Tennessee Titans guard Bruce Matthews, 40, will break Jim Marshall's record of 282 games played this week, the most ever by a player who didn't kick at least part-time. He was voted to his 13th consecutive Pro Bow last year.

"I definitely noticed it after 35," Matthews said Wednesday. "When I was younger, it was usually Tuesday when I felt like I could play again. Then it went later and later into the week. Sometimes there's Saturdays where I'm carrying over from the week before."

Darrell Green, 41, is still a factor at cornerback for the Washington Redskins. Appropriately, he ran his fastest 40-yard dash time ever last season at the age of 40, a searing 4.29.

	Footwork keeps Darrell Green, the Redskins' 41-year-old cornerback, ahead of the pack.

"You're as young as you feel," Green said at this year’s training camp. "And when you feel young, you play young."

Oakland Raiders receiver Jerry Rice might be parallel Jordan. Like Jordan, Rice is 38. Like Jordan, he'll turn 39 this season (on Oct. 13). Like Jordan, he has defined the position he has played.

As productive as Rice remains, the numbers are not encouraging. Despite rigorous workouts that have been compared to Clemens' regimen, there has been an unmistakable downward curve. Last season, his last with the San Francisco 49ers, Rice caught 75 passes for 805 yards and seven touchdowns. Those catches were the lowest total since 1988 and the yards were the worst in Rice's 16-season NFL career.

The NHL, too, has been blessed by longevity. Defenseman Raymond Borque finally took home the Stanley Cup at the age of 40, then promptly retired. Scott Stevens, of the New Jersey Devils, had one of his best, hardest-hitting seasons ever at the age of 37. Ron Francis, whose 1,137 assists place him third on the all-time list behind Wayne Gretzky and Borque, was effective for the Carolina Hurricanes at the age of 38.

The Olympic movement is getting older, too. American swimmer Dara Torres defied convention and became the oldest woman swimmer, at the age of 33, to make the Olympic team. Her teammates actually called her "Grandma." After a seven-year layoff, she took home more medals than any of them. She won two relay gold medals and three individual bronzes, one in the 100-meter butterfly, an event won by 27-year-old Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands. There was a time, believe it or not, when teenagers dominated the water.

Tennis players are another group that haven't historically aged well. Pete Sampras turned 30 this summer and talked at the U.S. Open about his sense of mortality. After a long talk with Gretzky, Sampras said, he vowed to work harder to get in better shape.

"He said, 'You need to work harder, lift heavier, run harder,' " Sampras said. "I realize that's what I need to do. I made a conscious effort after the [2000] final here to put a lot of time into my training."

Still, he lost in a one-sided U.S. Open final to Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, who was all of 20 years old.

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.