He’s earned 23 Olympic gold medals for the American swim team over his career, but can this all-American record-breaking athlete outswim a great white shark? We’ll find out when man races beast as soon as “Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs Great White” debuts on the Discovery Channel on July 23 for their annual “Shark Week” programming event. Phelps “has one competition left to win,” according to the Discovery Channel. “An event so monumental no one has ever attempted it before. The world’s most decorated athlete takes on the ocean’s most efficient predator: Phelps V Shark – the race is on!”
Now that sounds really cool at its core, but if this “Phelps vs. Shark” thing wants to have any sort of credibility, both contestants need to swim on a level playing field. Have the man enter one lane of a saltwater pool, place the shark on the other, and make sure that the both haven’t eaten for at least 30 minutes before starting the race.
Seriously, there hasn’t been the slightest hint of how the “race” will be set up by the Discovery Channel, so try not to get your hopes up just in case it turns out to be as anticlimactic as that one time they hyped up a special where a scientist was to be “Eaten Alive” by an anaconda.
**Spoiler Alert- He wasn’t eaten by the anaconda.**
Even if “Phelps vs. Shark” turns out to be as great as the concept sounds, and it really is a no holds barred swimming contest between Michael Phelps and a massive ocean-dwelling killing machine, the average human swims at a whopping two miles per hour, but Phelps’s max speed is likely between 4.5 to 6 miles per hour. A great white shark easily swims at 25 to 35 miles per hour. Seems a little one-sided if you ask me…
Who do you think will win this epic aquatic race? Michael Phelps, legendary Olympian swimmer, or the great white shark who eats sea lions like burgers and has never left the water in its entire life? I don’t know about you, but my money’s on the fish.
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