American swimmer Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time. The now-retired 33-year-old owns 28 Olympic medals, with 23 of them being gold. His primary events included the 200 IM, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 fly and 200 free.
We know Phelps out-swam his competition in the pool on most occasions, but exactly how fast was the megastar swimming?
ESPN clocked Phelps’ speed in the 6 miles per hour range on average. For comparison, that places him well behind track Olympic Usain Bolt’s estimated 27.3 mph speed. It was places him behind a goldfish, per a study conducted in 2008.
Phelps’ speed was put to the ultimate test in the summer of 2017 when the Olympian raced a shark. Well, sort of. Phelps performed his own individual time trial, which was then compared to a computer-generated shark image. Phelps ultimately lost to the shark, who swam speeds in the 25 mph range.
