You might have heard that Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps — he of the 23 gold medals and 39 world records — will race a Great White Shark on television.
Well, sort of.
“Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White” (Sunday at 8 p.m. on Discovery) will pit Phelps, 32, against a Great White Shark, age unknown, as they both swim 100 meters. Phelps swam his part of the “race” off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, while the Great White fulfilled his end of the bargain elsewhere in the ocean depths.
“We were not side by side during the race at the same exact time for the show,” says Phelps, who didn’t want to divulge too much about the special’s technical aspects. “For me, when I was in the water, safety was obviously the number one priority. But being able to swim in open water and in the same vicinity of sharks … they can swim wherever the hell they want … was just an absolute treat. I wanted to do it because it sounded awesome.”
Unless the Great White was having a bad day (hey, it happens), it’s extremely unlikely that Phelps will best his opponent — since Great Whites can swim up to 25 miles per hour while Phelps, at his best, swims an estimated 6.5 miles per hour (which is incredible enough). “I’m at a slight disadvantage,” he jokes about the race. The interest in “Phelps vs. Shark” lies in seeing how fast Phelps was able to swim in the open ocean, aided by a “monofin” (a swim fin that looks like a mermaid’s fin) and a 1-millimeter-thick wet suit.
So did Phelps psych himself up for the race, as he would against an Olympic competitor?
“For me, at that point, it wasn’t really about that,” he says. “It was really about the cold water I was swimming in. That 50-degree water was pretty damn cold — it almost sends a shock through your body — so I wasn’t super-thrilled about that, but it was the biggest mental thing I had to deal with. We had to have some extra tools to allow me to have a little bit of a better chance to race him,” he says of his Great White competitor.”
[It took Phelps only one take to nail his 100-meter swim; no word on whether the Great White needed more time.]
Phelps is also hosting another “Shark Week” special, “Shark School with Michael Phelps” (July 30 at 8 p.m.), where he spends time at the Bimini Shark Lab (in the Bahamas).
“It’s really kind of teaching people the dos and don’ts when they’re in the water with sharks,” Phelps says. “How to enter [the water] properly and do certain things the right way. If you look at the general population, a lot of people think sharks are out for one thing: to kill you and eat you and bite you, but that’s not really the case. They get a bad rap, and hopefully some of the things I learned on the show other people can use.
“Other people don’t have the same appreciation for sharks as I do,” he says. “So many animals are killed, especially sharks, and hopefully we can get the message out to everybody that we don’t want to kill off this species. Hopefully people will have a better understanding of what sharks are about — and have some respect for these animals.”
Well, sort of.
“Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White” (Sunday at 8 p.m. on Discovery) will pit Phelps, 32, against a Great White Shark, age unknown, as they both swim 100 meters. Phelps swam his part of the “race” off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, while the Great White fulfilled his end of the bargain elsewhere in the ocean depths.
“We were not side by side during the race at the same exact time for the show,” says Phelps, who didn’t want to divulge too much about the special’s technical aspects. “For me, when I was in the water, safety was obviously the number one priority. But being able to swim in open water and in the same vicinity of sharks … they can swim wherever the hell they want … was just an absolute treat. I wanted to do it because it sounded awesome.”
Unless the Great White was having a bad day (hey, it happens), it’s extremely unlikely that Phelps will best his opponent — since Great Whites can swim up to 25 miles per hour while Phelps, at his best, swims an estimated 6.5 miles per hour (which is incredible enough). “I’m at a slight disadvantage,” he jokes about the race. The interest in “Phelps vs. Shark” lies in seeing how fast Phelps was able to swim in the open ocean, aided by a “monofin” (a swim fin that looks like a mermaid’s fin) and a 1-millimeter-thick wet suit.
So did Phelps psych himself up for the race, as he would against an Olympic competitor?
“For me, at that point, it wasn’t really about that,” he says. “It was really about the cold water I was swimming in. That 50-degree water was pretty damn cold — it almost sends a shock through your body — so I wasn’t super-thrilled about that, but it was the biggest mental thing I had to deal with. We had to have some extra tools to allow me to have a little bit of a better chance to race him,” he says of his Great White competitor.”
[It took Phelps only one take to nail his 100-meter swim; no word on whether the Great White needed more time.]
Phelps is also hosting another “Shark Week” special, “Shark School with Michael Phelps” (July 30 at 8 p.m.), where he spends time at the Bimini Shark Lab (in the Bahamas).
“It’s really kind of teaching people the dos and don’ts when they’re in the water with sharks,” Phelps says. “How to enter [the water] properly and do certain things the right way. If you look at the general population, a lot of people think sharks are out for one thing: to kill you and eat you and bite you, but that’s not really the case. They get a bad rap, and hopefully some of the things I learned on the show other people can use.
“Other people don’t have the same appreciation for sharks as I do,” he says. “So many animals are killed, especially sharks, and hopefully we can get the message out to everybody that we don’t want to kill off this species. Hopefully people will have a better understanding of what sharks are about — and have some respect for these animals.”
