Michael Phelps Loses Race vs. Great White Shark on Shark Week

Not even the most decorated Olympian of all time can keep up with a great white shark.

Michael Phelps helped kick off the 2017 edition of Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week on Sunday with a race against a shark in Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White. The 23-time Olympic gold medalist finally met his match and lost the made-for-television race.

Shark Week shared the race between the two swimming machines:

Ever the competitor, Phelps was itching for a rematch merely minutes after Sunday's show aired:

There was plenty of buildup for this event, and the scientists on Discovery Channel spent much of the time explaining how fast sharks truly are and demonstrated new wetsuits for Phelps to use.

There was also a demonstration of what a shark would look like in one of Phelps' Olympic races.

Discovery Channel shared some of the footage on its YouTube page:

While Phelps was focused on beating a shark in the race, he also got an up-close look at the animal's power in open water. Shark Week captured some of the notable moments:

Phelps will always have his many triumphs against human competitors to fall back on after Sunday's failure, and Yahoo Sports remembered a famous one against South Africa's Chad le Clos:

It was unrealistic to expect Phelps to actually beat a great white shark or get in the water with the feared creature, but Gary Parrish of CBS Sports still reacted to the buildup and lack of an actual one-on-one race instead of a computer simulation:

Phelps will have to stick to racing humans...probably.