After South African swimmer Chad le Clos beat US rival Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly race in 2012, the two spoke about Phelps coming to South Africa to swim with great white sharks.
But Phelps has gone one better and has raced against a great white shark off the Cape coast for a documentary by the wildlife TV programme Discovery for Shark Week 2017.
The outcome of the 100-metre race has been kept a closely guarded secret, until now.
undefinedThe “race” — dubbed “Great Gold vs. Great White” — ended with the shark edging out Phelps by just 2 seconds.
However viewers expressed their disappointed on Twitter that Phelps and the shark did not swim side-by-side - they each took turns swimming the 100 metres at different times. Discovery later superimposed an image of the shark on the other side of Phelps to give the appearance of an actual race.
Watching #SharkWeek and was hoping to see some crazy action on #PhelpsVsShark. Ended up pretty lame. #Phelps #DiscoveryChannel #FakeNews pic.twitter.com/zZo0FCs2aX
— ☆Joseph Peña☆✌️ (@joep82) July 24, 2017
#PhelpsVsShark Would be so much better if they were swimming at the same time in the same water #SharkWeek
— blaire with an e (@blairesided) July 24, 2017
1. They should have advertised it DIFFERENTLY
2. I thought it was going to be a barrier in between them
3. I GOT JIPPED 😡😡😡 #PhelpsVsShark
— Jaime Murray ♿ (@GeekWoman20) July 24, 2017
When the sharks are equally disappointed by the fake hype #PhelpsVsShark #SharkWeek pic.twitter.com/bkSpw2fuda
— Sarah DeWeese (@teensy_deweese) July 24, 2017
Speaking of the race Phelps said: “We did set up a lane line to make it look like there was a pool.”
To make sure it was safe, there were about 15 divers in the water with him.
Great whites swim at 9 to 11km/h , but can reach 40km/h when hunting. The swimmer’s top speed is 9km/h but for the race he strapped on a “monofin” on his feet, to double his speed in a bid to even things up.
He took part in the documentary to aid shark conservation and show they “really aren’t out to eat us”.