For what seems like months, Discovery Channel has really been hyping a big event as part of Shark Week where Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps races a great white shark. Yeah, our eyes rolled just as much as yours just did when you read that. But regardless of how corny it sounds, the whole thing finally went down this weekend and, not surprisingly, it ended up being a complete ripoff.
First off, Phelps was not in the water with a real shark. He was swimming against a computer simulation of a shark. And he lost by two seconds to the simulated shark. The two faced off in a 100-meter “race,” which supposedly gave Phelps more of a chance to win, because sharks can only swim at their top speed for short distances. Making the whole thing even more ridiculous was the fact that Phelps was wearing a monofin to help him go faster. And he just looked ridiculous.
Phelps ended up finishing the race in 38.1 seconds, with the fake shark besting him with a time of 36.1 seconds.
