Can Michael Phelps Beat The Ocean's Fastest Fish? - Mission Blue

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Michael Phelps vs. a Sailfish: Can Michael Phelps Beat the Ocean’s Fastest Fish?

August 3, 2012

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By Mera McGrew

With a record 20 medals, Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time.  So while Phelps has secured a spot as a hall of fame athlete, pertinent questions remain, including this one:  How fast does Phelps swim?  And specifically, how does he stack up against one of the fastest fish in the world, the Indo-Pacific sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus)?

For Michael Phelps, let’s take his time in the Thursday Aug 2, 2012 200-meter individual medley, which earned Phelps his 16th career Olympic gold medal.  In the same race he also became the first man to win three consecutive Olympic golds in the same event, ensuring his place in the Parthenon of the world’s greatest swimmers. Phelps clocked his historic win in 1 minute, 54.27 seconds, which calculates to a speed of about 3.92 miles per hour (6.31 km/h).

While it is difficult to measure the swimming speed of large oceanic fish, it is widely accepted that one of the world’s fastest fish is the Indo-Pacific sailfish, which has been clocked swimming in excess of 68 miles per hour (109 km/h).

Although Phelps may be the fastest man in the water, against sailfishes all bets are off. Researchers say sailfishes swim some 200,000 miles over their 16-year lifespan and are some of the world’s most powerful fishes, so maybe this wasn’t such a fair match-up to begin with…

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