How Fast Is Michael Phelps

Logo text

Retired competitive swimmer Michael Phelps, the virtually decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals, took on a great white shark in a Discovery Aqueduct special Sunday dark.

Did he win?

Phelps vs. Shark: Bully Aureate vs. Bang-up White, which helped kick off Discovery Channel's Shark Week programming, found Phelps and a group of scientists working to record the speed of, beginning, a hammerhead shark and and so a great white shark.

"This is something I've been wanting to do for a while," Phelps said of his interest in taking on the challenge.

The squad developed a special device to record the sharks' swimming speed. Dubbed a "cutting-edge water vehicle prototype" featuring lightweight carbon fiber, the "pontoon bike" was trailed past allurement to entice the shark to follow speedily behind as its speed was measured. First tested was a hammerhead whose top speed was measured at 15 miles an hour; it traveled 50 meters in just over 15 seconds.

Compare that with Phelps' speed of just over 5.5 miles an 60 minutes when he bankrupt the world record in the 100-meter butterfly at the 2009 World Championships.

"Honestly, my offset idea when I saw the shark was, 'At that place'southward very footling hazard for me to beat him,'" Phelps said.

Wearing a monofin to simulate a shark's movements — and to maximize his speed and the volume of water he was able to push button with each kick — Phelps swam fifty meters in the bounding main off the Bimini coast and came in at 18.vii seconds, with the squad comparing his time to that of a hammerhead and a reef shark.

While he didn't beat the hammerhead, which swam the distance in 15.1 seconds, he was able to beat the reef shark by 0.ii seconds, swimming at 6 miles an hour.

Next up: the great white shark, whose top speed was recorded as more than than 26 miles per hour (able to swim 100 meters in 36.1 seconds) off the coast of Mossel Bay, South Africa.

Working in Phelps' favor is the fact that sharks can't sustain a loftier speed and must boring down at times to conserve energy. The team decided to extend the race to 100 meters, given Phelps' power to sustain top speeds over a long distance, to requite him "a swimming chance," as one of the experts put information technology.

"I've always been an endurance swimmer, and hopefully that will work in my favor," Phelps said.

In add-on, he was given a modified monofin in an effort to ameliorate his speed even more. Nevertheless, the visibility in the South African waters was not nearly every bit clear as that in Bimini. And the water was a lot colder, at 56 degrees, or 24 degrees colder than the h2o in an Olympic pool.

"I'thousand high-maintenance when it comes to cold water," Phelps said. "I don't like it."

Making it more challenging, Phelps was wearing a wetsuit that was only ane mm thick. Sharks, meanwhile, are able to raise the temperature of their muscles up to 25 degrees college than their surroundings.

In case you were wondering, Phelps did non race side by side with the sharks; rather, images of the sharks were displayed aslope Phelps as he swam using CGI technology. Some viewers expressed thwarting on Twitter that he wasn't actually swimming in the water with the shark: "Michael Phelps is racing a CGI shark. The world is yet again a meme," wrote one.

Tristan Guttridge, a scientist leading the effort, explained: "Clearly, we can't put Michael in one lane and a shark in the far lane. Nosotros have to do simulation. We'll use our speed data that we've [collected] in all our testing."

Phelps himself had said in interviews leading up to the broadcast that he wouldn't really be swimming in the water at the same time equally the shark.

Meanwhile, Phelps worked on a new stroke as he practiced for the race. "I'm gonna have to swim, and human activity, similar a shark," Phelps said ahead of the race, every bit he was seen swimming what looked like a sideways butterfly stroke.

Added Guttridge: "This is like the tortoise and the hare, where Michael is the tortoise, steady equally he goes, consistently in the race, while the white shark is slow and cruising with bursts of speed."

So who won?

Phelps swam the 100 meters in 38.1 seconds, while the shark did the same length in 36.i seconds, beating Phelps by two seconds.

At the outset of the race, Phelps reached a speed of viii.8 miles an hour, swimming faster than the shark, but then the shark took the lead at the 25-meter mark, and Phelps was unable to overcome the creature's lead.

"Before I pigeon in, I knew how cold it was going to be, and I knew that for me, as a swimmer, we don't swim in this, and it basically only shocked your entire body," he said. "And I have this niggling tiny wetsuit on, so it'south absolutely freezing."

But Phelps isn't a sore loser: "I call back it'southward impressive to come across an animal survive this [cold water] and still have a top speed of 25 miles an hour."

How Fast Is Michael Phelps,

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/michael-phelps-a-great-white-shark-heres-what-happened-1023751/

Posted by: cookesweaver.blogspot.com

Share this post