Michael Phelps’s much-hyped race against a Great White Shark ended in defeat for the 28-time Olympic medallist, although the race itself was actually Phelps “competing” against computer-generated images of a great white.
The record-breaking American athlete, who had always maintained that he would never swim alongside a real shark, did come face to face with two live sharks in a cage dive off Cape Town, South Africa earlier this month.
In the “race”, Phelps, using a monofin, swam 100 metres in the open ocean in 38.1 seconds, with the “shark” timed at 36.1.
Discovery Channel, who set up the event, superimposed the computer-generated footage over Phelps to give the appearance that they were racing alongside each other.
The fastest unaided speed of a human is around 8-10km/h, while a Great White can reach 40km/h.
