France's Léon Marchand followed his four Olympic gold medals by breaking his first short course world record, which was immediately followed by American Regan Smith breaking her own world record.

Marchand won the 200m individual medley in 1:48.88 at a World Aquatics World Cup stop in Singapore on Friday. He lowered the previous record of 1:49.63 set by Ryan Lochte in 2012.

"That was really exciting for me, because I was trying to do something that has never (been) done before," Marchand said. "The crowd was going crazy, so it was really pushing me. ... That reminded me of Paris, the Olympics."

It's Marchand's second world record in meters, but first in the short course, 25-meter pool. In 2023, he broke Michael Phelps' last remaining world record in the 400m IM in a 50-meter pool, the size used at the Olympics.

Now Lochte is left with one individual world record in meters in the 200m IM in a 50-meter pool. Marchand missed that world record (1:54.00) by six hundredths at the Paris Olympics.

In the race following Marchand's world record, Smith broke the 100m backstroke world record for a second consecutive Friday.

The eight-time Olympic medalist clocked 54.27 to better her record of 54.41 set last Friday at a World Cup in Incheon, South Korea.

"We want to be good, better, best, and this is stop three," said Smith, who swam 54.89 at the first of three World Cups in Shanghai two weeks ago.

The World Cup concludes Saturday with finals live on Peacock at 6:30 a.m. ET.

Marchand and Smith are both expected to swim at the world championships in short course in Budapest from Dec. 10-15.

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