A veteran Maine lifeguard with more than half a century of experience says a great white shark yanked him six feet beneath the ocean Saturday.

The terrifying encounter set off a desperate sprint for shore that Greg Wilfert believes could have challenged swimming legend Michael Phelps, as reported by The New York Post.

Wilfert, 71, was swimming near buoys with other lifeguards off Scarborough Beach State Park when something suddenly pulled him below the waves.

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The longtime park worker, known for his blond hair and dark beard, quickly realized this was no ordinary equipment problem.

“I thought a boat had come by and grabbed my rescue can because I got pulled under, and I realized right away that it was not a boat, that it had to have been a great white,” he said.

That realization left Wilfert with no time for hesitation. He scrambled to remove the strap from his flotation device, surfaced, and immediately began charging toward land while hoping the massive predator was not following him.

“I just swam as fast as I could to the surface, and then I just was hoping it wasn’t behind me,” said Wilfert, who has worked at the park for 55 years.

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The veteran lifeguard later joked that raw fear turned him into an Olympic-caliber swimmer.

Wilfert said he was moving so quickly during his escape that he “could’ve beaten Michael Phelps,” which is one way to discover a little extra speed when a great white may be on your heels.

A witness provided authorities with an account that appeared to support Wilfert’s description of the encounter.

The person told Scarborough police that Wilfert’s rescue torpedo suddenly shot from the water shortly after he began swimming furiously toward the beach, according to WMTW.

That detail suggested the flotation device had been hit or pulled with considerable force beneath the surface.

Wilfert believed the shark grabbed the rescue equipment rather than his body, a stroke of good fortune that likely prevented the episode from becoming far worse.

Local officials said the incident was consistent with recent shark activity around the Maine coast.

An expert from the New England Aquarium also reviewed the circumstances and found Wilfert’s account plausible, according to the local report.

The region had already been dealing with a burst of unsettling sightings before Wilfert entered the water.

Nearly a dozen young sharks reportedly had been spotted in the area during the previous week, giving beach officials plenty of reason to take his alarming story seriously.

Officials cleared Scarborough Beach for about an hour following the encounter.

Crews surveyed the surrounding water before allowing normal activity to resume, while swimmers were left with a fresh reminder that the ocean does not care how many summers anyone has spent patrolling it.

Maine has recorded only one fatal shark encounter in its history.

That attack occurred in 2020, when a 63-year-old woman from New York was killed by a great white while swimming with her daughter near an island off Harpswell, according to ABC Boston.

The rarity of such attacks offers some reassurance, but it does little to calm a swimmer who has just been violently dragged underwater.

For Wilfert, the possibility that the predator was still behind him made every stroke toward shore feel far more urgent.

“It was frightening,” a relieved Wilfert, who was not injured, told WGME. His understated assessment hardly captures the panic of being pulled beneath the Atlantic by something powerful enough to send rescue gear flying from the waves.

Wilfert has spent 55 years working at the state park, giving him more experience around the water than most beach visitors could ever hope to gain.

Yet even a seasoned lifeguard can receive a brutal lesson when a great white apparently decides to investigate his equipment.

The encounter did not convince Wilfert to abandon the beach, but it did inspire one immediate change in plans.

He said he will not be swimming near the buoys again anytime soon, an entirely reasonable decision after Mother Nature delivered such an unmistakable warning.

Wilfert walked away unharmed, armed with an extraordinary survival story and perhaps the fastest swim of his life.

The rescue may have taken the shark’s attention, but quick thinking and pure adrenaline carried the 71-year-old lifeguard safely back to shore.

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