Phelps at the Rio Games (Photo Credit: By Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil [CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

When Michael Phelps announced his retirement at the 2016 Rio Olympics he really had no intention of swimming competitively again. However, that changed when the decorated athlete was approached by the Discovery Channel to help kick off Shark Week with a race against one of the world’s fastest and most efficient predators — a great white!