The INSIDER Summary
- Michael Phelps was supposed to race a Great White Shark.
- They just swam in different places and compared times.
- The shark won by two seconds.
- Everyone is mad about it.
Remember when Michael Phelps retired and then got bored so he decided to race a shark? Well, those race results are in, and there’s a winner.
If you can even believe it, the boy/fish wonder, the Michael Phelps, lost to the great white shark. Bummer. The race took place on Sunday, the first day of Discovery Channel’s always-anticipated Shark Week. Phelps and the shark went head-to-head in the waters of Cape Town, South Africa.
The moment of glory for #TeamShark!!! #PhelpsVsShark#SharkWeekpic.twitter.com/NWYp1CwiRa
— Shark Week (@SharkWeek) July 24, 2017
Just to clear up the handling of the race, Phelps and the shark did not actually swim side-by-side in the ocean, even though Discovery Channel really made it look like they were neck-and-neck. The 23-time gold-medal-winning Olympian swam next to a simulation of the shark in the same ocean water for 100 meters at a different time. I think that’s fair, since we don’t want Phelps to be attacked by a great white on live television. But Twitter wasn’t necessarily happy that it was just a simulation.
Turns out “Michael Phelps races a shark” was really just “Michael Phelps swims alone and then compares his time to a shark’s time.”
— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) July 24, 2017
The shark finished a full 2 seconds ahead of Phelps, with the final times for the 100-meter dash coming in at 36.1 seconds and 38.1 seconds. This could have been predicted, however, since the average speed of a swimming great white shark is 25 mph, and Phelps’ overall fastest speed on record is 6 mph. The champion swimmer did have some help, however, wearing a sharkskin-like wetsuit and a monofin to make it even a little possible to win. Alas, not even close.
I do think congratulations are in order for Phelps, though. To be so good at swimming that you can say “I was asked to race a shark on live TV” is definitely cooler than anything most of us can ever claim.