The Invincibles

In recent sports history, this label has been widely associated with a fantastic achievement of Arsenal F.C., who won the 2003/04 season of the English Premier League without a single defeat. Geographically speaking, it serves as a rather appropriate introduction too, as the Gunners play their home games in North London. Oh what a team that was...

But back to London 2012. In fact there are a couple of Olympians whose recent achievements could easily be described using these very words: the Invincibles! Of course the big question is whether they can maintain that status by winning the gold medal in the upcoming Games. What follows below is a short list of my favourite Invincibles.

Recent achievements of the French national handball team are mighty impressive: Olympic Champions 2008, World Champions 2009, European Champions 2010, and again World Champions 2011. To put this into perspective: it is so far the only national handball team in history to have won four major titles in a row. They are widely considered by observers as the greatest handball team of all times. Can Nikola Karabatic lead them to extend that incredible run?

Maria Valentina Vezzali is the first fencer in Olympic history to win three Individual Foil gold medals at three consecutive Olympics: in Sydney, Athens, and Beijing. In November 2011, a month after winning her sixth individual gold medal at the World Championships in Catania, she was seriously injured in a car crash. It is still unclear if she'll have the time to come back to top shape - so far she's been rather unimpressive in this year's World Cup. But although I keep my fingers crossed for the Polish foil team, it would be great to see Valentina back on the podium!

 

His arms span 201cm - disproportionate to his height of 193cm - and act as long, propulsive "paddles". His relatively short legs lower drag, and perhaps add the speed enhancement of a hydrofoil. His size 14 feet provide the effect of flippers. And his hypermobile ankles can extend beyond the pointe of a ballet dancer, enabling him to whip his feet as if they were fins for maximum thrust through the water. His name is Michael Phelps, and he doesn't like losing all that much. In Beijing, upon completing the event that awarded him his eighth gold medal and eighth Olympic record in as many events (spanning over a week only), he humbly said: "Records are always made to be broken no matter what they are. Anybody can do anything that they set their mind to." Incidentally, it sounds almost identical to one of my favourite slogans ever:

Which reminds me: next time, my favourite sports-related ads of all time!