Four golds was just the start for Léon Marchand, it seems. This evening here in Singapore, the Frenchman dropped a fast and furious World record of 1:52.69 in his semi-final of the 200m medley to wipe a massive 1.31sec off the standard that had been held by American Ryan Lochte since 2011.

And what of that other American? No, not Michael Phelps. The other one. Mark Spitz: 1:52.78 was his winning time in the 200m FREESTYLE at the Munich Olympics in 1972 on his way to a record seven gold medals at one Games.

Then came Phelps with his weight golds at Beijing in 2008, his 23 golds atop 28 Olympic medals by the time he hung up his goggles in 2016 including a record four 200m medley titles (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016).

While still racing, there was just one man among any who ever beat him who got the better of him on the World-record clock: Lochte, 0.16sec faster that Phelps (who set the standard eight times between 2003 ands 2008) at 1:54.00.

Today, Marchand left behind his best of 1:54.06, for Olympic gold as the hero of his Home Games last year, as he leapt over Lochte, the whole 1:53 zone, and landed beyond the speed of Spitz on the fastest stroke of all four - freestyle.

The World record, which is faster than the 1:52.85 in which Mollie O'Callaghan set the women's 200m freestyle global mark in 2023 before Australia teammate Ariarne Titmus took it down to 1:52.23 last year, earned him an instant $30,000:

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