Michael Phelps

So the much-hyped swimming race between the 23-time Olympic goldmedal winner and a great white shark didn’t exactly turn out the way the Discovery Channel led us to believe. Sunday night’s program to kick off Shark Week seemed about as realistic as a sharknado. Phelps swam alone, timetrial style, in the waters off South Africa. It also wasn’t exactly a shark. When the “race” was shown, Phelps was matched with a computer-generated image of a shark, supposedly simulating a real shark’s speed. Many people on social media said they felt cheated. The shark “won” by two seconds. “Rematch? Next time ... warmer water,” Phelps tweeted.