Goes back over sporting events, having retired earlier (8)
I believe the answer is:
retraces
'goes back over' is the definition.
(as in retracing your steps)
'sporting events having retired earlier' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'events' could be 'races' (race is a kind of event) and 'races' is present in the answer.
'retired' could be 'ret' (e.g. following the name of a retired army officer) and 'ret' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for retraces that I've seen before include "Goes back over again" , "Follows back from terraces" .)