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Shark Week going for gold with Michael Phelps

Posted at 2:48 PM, Jun 20, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-20 14:48:01-04

(CNN) — Michael Phelps is fast, but can he outswim a shark?

The Olympian will help kick off Discovery’s Shark Week in July.

“He is our greatest champion to ever get in the water: Michael Phelps. 39 world records. 23 Olympic golds. But he has one competition left to win,” a news release from the network reads. “An event so monumental no one has ever attempted it before. The world’s most decorated athlete takes on the ocean’s most efficient predator: Phelps V Shark — the race is on!”

The eight-day marathon of all things sharks begins July 23.

Celebrating its 29th anniversary, the very popular Shark Week will for the first time be airing during the same week on Discovery Channel in more than 220 countries and territories.

Phelps will appear in two specials, “Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs Great White” and “Shark School with Michael Phelps.”

The latter will find Phelps learning about the creatures at the Bimini Shark Lab in the Bahamas.

And he’s not the only celeb set to participate.

Actor Chris Noth will also sink his teeth into the programming, the network said.

Other specials will include titles such as “Great White Shark Serial Killer Lives,” “Shark Vortex” and “Alien Sharks: Stranger Fins.”