20 animal-human matchups we’d like to see besides Michael Phelps vs. a shark

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – JUNE 27: Katie Ledecky celebrates after winning the Women’s 800 LC Meter Freestyle Final during the 2017 Phillips 66 National Championships

4. Katie Ledecky vs. a dolphin

As if one swimming matchup with Michael Phelps going up against a shark wasn’t enough, let’s show some love for one of swimming’s new stars: Katie Ledecky.

Ledecky has been absolutely dominant over the past few years and put on an incredible showing at last summer’s Olympics to emerge as one of the biggest names in the sport. Now, let’s capitalize on that momentum, and put her up against another aquatic phenom to really have some fun.

Swimmers’ motions in the pool tend to resemble a dolphin’s movements in the water anyway, so let’s get Ledecky racing against a dolphin to see just how it would go. It’s one of the more natural animals to have a swimming race with, and it’s not like we could put her against a butterfly in the water to match up with a butterfly stroke.

According to research done by the Dolphin Communication Project, dolphins can finish a 100m swimming race in just 21.7 seconds if they competed fairly without jumping out of the water. Ledecky’s best 100m time is 53.75, so it obviously wouldn’t be much of a competition, but it would be incredible to see how it all played out.

And, to make things fair, we could try and give Ledecky some sort of fin or swimming enhancer, like they’ve given to Phelps for the shark event, to make the race more interesting and competitive.

If there was an undercard for the Phelps vs. shark main event, this matchup would have to be on it, and it’d definitely make for some entertaining television.