We had to double check it was the first of April when we heard this...
While we don't have quite the appetite for it on this side of the pond, Shark Week is absolutely HUGE in the States, and this year it kicks off on 23 July, and the centrepiece of the seven days of shark-based TV watching is quite the event.
Titled "Great Gold VS Great White", the Discovery Channel describe it as follows:
"They are one of the fastest and most efficient predators on the planet: Sharks.
He is our greatest champion to ever get in the water: Michael Phelps.
39 world records. 23 Olympic golds. But he has one competition left to win.
An event so monumental no one has ever attempted it before. The world’s most decorated athlete takes on the ocean’s most efficient predator: Phelps V Shark — the race is on!"
The rules of the race aren't immediately clear. Will they be dropping the shark into a pool and ask it stay in it's lane and, preferably, don't scoot over and chomp up Phelps?
Will Phelps be left out in the wide ocean to swim a specified length, and then they drop in the shark in and do the same? We're betting whatever Phelps previous best time was, it will be greatly improved upon with him knowing that there's a shark right behind him for the majority of it.
Whatever the race ends up being, Phelps is already pretty pumped about it.
