With 23 Olympic gold medals, swimmer Michael Phelps needed a new challenge.已荣获了23枚奥运金牌的游泳选手迈克尔·菲尔普斯需要一项新的挑战。
And what better challenger for the most decorated Olympian in history than the ocean's most fearsome predator - the Great White Shark.对于这位史上获得最多奥运奖牌的选手还有比海洋中最可怕的捕食者大白鲨更好的挑战者吗？
The king of the pool threw down the gauntlet to the king of the ocean for a new documentary.在一部新的纪录片中，泳池之王向海洋之王发起了挑战。
But did he bite off more than he could chew?不过，他是不是太不自量力了？
Phelps vs Shark saw the American swimmer don a ‘monofin’ take to the open waves off Cape Town, South Africa for Shark Week.“鲨鱼周”这档记录片见证了菲尔普斯与鲨鱼对抗的全过程，这位美国游泳选手穿上“单片脚蹼”与鲨鱼在南非开普敦市的开放水域进行了较量。
Backed by a 15-strong army of divers underneath him for protection, he emulated the shark’s shape and swimming conditions while racing over 100m.在进行100米游泳比赛的时候，他模仿了鲨鱼的样子和游泳条件，期间有15名强壮的军队潜水员在水下保护他。
Viewers in the US tuned in to the Discovery Channel on Sunday night to see the results of this battle.美国的观众在周日晚上收看探索频道就可以观看这场比赛的结果。
So did Phelps win the ultimate contest of human conditioning and skill versus pure, survival of the fittest evolution... or did he become lunch?那么菲尔普斯以人类的身体条件和技巧对抗适者生存条件下存活下来的纯粹物种，他赢得了最后的比赛了吗，还是他成了鲨鱼的午餐？
For starters, much to the disappointment of some viewers, Phelps, 32, didn't actually race a real shark. Instead, the swimmer was pitted against three computer generated sharks - a hammerhead, a reef shark and, last but not least, a Great White.首先，让一些观众十分失望的是，事实上，32岁的菲尔普斯并没有与一条真正的鲨鱼比赛，而是与三条电脑合成的鲨鱼对抗的，这三条鲨鱼分别是一条锤头鲨、一条礁鲨，以及最后也同样重要的一条大白鲨。
Phelps was given a special wetsuit to make him more streamlined as well as a fin - similar to a great white’s - to put him on equal footing with the shark.菲尔普斯得到了一套特殊的潜水衣，它就像大白鲨的鳍一样，使他更具流线型，让他与鲨鱼处于平等的竞争条件之下。
A Great White’s top speed hits 25mph, and an average of 16, while Phelps reaches a ‘mere’ six (albeit compared to an average human swimmer’s two).大白鲨的最快速度达25英里/小时，平均速度也有16英里/小时，而菲尔普斯的速度“只”达到了6英里/小时（尽然如此，但人类游泳选手的平均速度为2英里/小时）。
“It was so exhilarating,” said Michael. “My love for sharks has been there my whole life, this is a bucket list item.”“这太令人激动了，”迈克尔·菲尔普斯说道。“我一直非常喜欢鲨鱼，与鲨鱼比赛是我的愿望之一。”
“I wasn’t really expecting to absolutely win against a shark. I wanted to get in and give myself the best opportunity to see how fast I could go, to see how I could compare to the high speed of some of the animals that we have in the ocean.”“我并非真的期待着完全赢过一条鲨鱼。我想参与其中，给自己这个最佳的机会来看看我可以游多快，看看与海洋中速度非常快的生物相比我的表现如何。”
Incredibly, Phelps did actually beat one of the sharks.不可思议的是，菲尔普斯确实打败了其中一条鲨鱼。
In his first race, the swimmer came second to the hammerhead shark, beating the reef shark by .2 of a second.在他的第一场比赛中，这位游泳选手没有赢过那条锤头鲨，但他却以0.2秒的优势击败了礁鲨。
Sadly, his skills were no match for the Great White, which was two whole seconds faster over 100m.遗憾的是，他的技能不敌大白鲨，在100米的比赛中，大白鲨比他快了整整两秒。
For the documentary the swimmer spent time at School of Shark in the Bahamas before the race, to learn how the mammals move.在纪录片中，这位游泳选手赛前在巴哈马群岛的鲨鱼学校花时间了解了这种哺乳动物的移动方式。
“It was so interesting watching how they are in everyday life, being able to see how they go for a regular afternoon stroll, and how they just walk around on the water, or figuring out what they would swim in a 100-metre race,” he says.“看着他们在日常生活中样子，而且能够看到他们是如何进行常规的下午闲逛，它们如何在水中四处转动，并弄明白他们在100米游泳比赛中会是什么样子的，这一切都十分有趣，”他说道。
“Usually at this time of year it’s when we’re going into a major competition, so it was always very relaxing and calming to watch and learn more about sharks.”“通常在每年的这个时候，我们都在进行大型比赛，所以看着鲨鱼并进一步了解这种生物让我一直都很放松、很平静。”
He admitted he’ll always be an adrenaline junkie, though. And now he’s achieved all he can in the pool, he’s always on the look-out for the next ‘dream come true.’他承认自己一直是一个爱冒险的人。如今他已经实现了自己在泳池中的所有目标，他一直在期待着下一次“梦想成真”。
（翻译：Dlacus)
声明：本双语文章的中文翻译系沪江英语原创内容，转载请注明出处。中文翻译仅代表译者个人观点，仅供参考。如有不妥之处，欢迎指正。
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