Andrew Joseph

Michael Phelps' much-anticipated race against a shark was never going to be against a real great white shark. In fact, he told fans that for weeks leading up to the race. It was against a computer-generated simulation of a shark.

The fake shark won, beating the the 23-time Olympic gold medalist by two seconds in Sunday's Phelps vs. Shark on Discovery.

But given an hour of buildup, studies and special wetsuits, fans actually hoped to see Phelps race a shark - a real shark - as he would against a human competitor.

As Phelps had warned, that didn't happen. Fans were not pleased.

That was an hour that some people will never get back.