Michael Phelps races Simulated Shark | WATCH

32-year old Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps raced a great white shark on Sunday to kick off Discovery‘s Shark Week.

The 23-time Olympic gold medalist and a simulated shark went head-to-head in a 100 meter race dubbed “Great Gold vs. Great White.”

Although fans had expected Phelps to race a real shark, he ended up racing a computer generated shark – and lost.

Scientists had collated swim speeds of sharks and with it generated the computer generated one, as they rarely swim in a straight line.

Phelps employed the use of a “monofin” and a 1-millimeter think wetsuit, to try to defeat the shark

The shark swam 36.1 seconds, while Phelps, in the open sea off the coast of South Africa, was close with 38.1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ivx8IQwQl0

Photo Credit: Twitter – @darrenrovell