K.T Simpson
It’s that time of the year again, it’s the highly anticipated Shark Week! Discovery Channel’s dedication to the menacing fish kicked off with a race between Michael Phelps and a Great White Shark.
Personally, I was looking forward to a Great White lining up next to Phelps and racing him head to head in the quest for glory. Disappointingly, it was Phelps versus a computer-generated shark, which was a little big of a downer. Fans on Twitter expressed their distaste at the “stunt”, but to be fair, Phelps was put in shark-infested waters for his 100m swim. He also was allowed to wear a monofin and a wet-suit to become more shark-like and make it a fair race – Great Whites can swim up to 40km/h, while Phelps’ top speed is 10km/h.
However what Phelps lacks in speed, he makes up for in endurance, which the Great White lacks. The result was a fairly close race, but ultimately the shark taking out the gold medal, beating Phelps by a respectful 2 seconds.
The show went for close to an hour, but videos of the race part are surfacing – check out below.
Advantage: shark pic.twitter.com/mwaPRGFhHH
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 24, 2017
Want more Shark Week? Check out our definitive guide of shark movies to watch, and keep an eye out for more sharky goodness throughout the week.
