Michael Phelps was beaten by a great white shark in a Shark Week “race.”
Great White: 36.1 seconds
Michael Phelps: 38.13 seconds
The 23-time Olympic champion was not in the race water at the same time as a shark on “Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White,” which aired on Discovery Channel on Sunday night.
Instead, experts determined the speeds and movements of sharks for hypothetical races. Then, Phelps dove into open water off South Africa alone with a monofin and swam to a buoy earlier this year.
Experts determined a great white could cover 100 meters in 36.