for what it's worth:
fam can do this easily, but with two big ifs (which i guess means maybe it's not easy at all, however...):
a) if his life allows him to--not sure what his day job is; and b) if he generally was not too injury prone as a pro--i never kept up much with that part of his career. but as far as from a physical standpoint, he's got the tools and 40 does not mean the steep physical decline that some think it is.
if i had to guess, a dude like TW must have been able to devote a fair amount of time and energy to the pursuit--to train, recover, sleep, etc., then travel around to meets requires a job and family life that is not inordinately too physically or mentally stressful. also, a dude like TW has a larger margin for error than fam based on physical ability. but i don't think it's "a stretch," considering sorenson got fairly close and fam's considerably faster pr-wise and with greater range.
as far as "good for the sport" goes, i'm always surprised by what interests, motivates and inspires people. as a masters runner i rarely use "good for the sport" to justify what i do; however, i do, know there are young people who don't want to get beat by the old dude, so sometimes i think it is good for the sport. i think guys like TW or ed whitlock (rip) are good for the sport, but i suppose it would be hard to quantify this, and certainly you'd have to qualify what "good" means in the first place...
that's my story and i'm sticking to it,
cush