Summer McIntosh is staring down another world record — but will she go for it?

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We know now that world records can fall at the swimming world championships in Singapore.

French superstar Leon Marchand crushed the men's 200-metre individual medley mark during Wednesday's semifinals at WCH Arena, lowering American Ryan Lochte's 1:54-flat record all the way to 1:52.69.

It was the first world record to fall at this meet, and it leaves us wondering just how fast the four-time Olympic champion might go in Thursday's final.

There was some thought, too, that Canada's Summer McIntosh might aim for a longstanding world record (and the $30,000 US that comes with it) of her own in today's 200 butterfly semifinal. Instead, she turned on autopilot, cruising to victory in her heat at a relatively slow 2:06.22 — about four seconds off the Canadian-record pace she set at national trials in June. Watch the full semi here.

McIntosh will compete for her third gold medal of the meet in the 200 fly on Thursday at 7:02 a.m. ET, with live coverage on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.

As is often the case with the three-time Olympic champion, the question for McIntosh is as much about whether she can win the race as it is about if she can crack the world record in the process.

The mark, which is currently held by China's Liu Zige at 2:01.81, was set under somewhat strange circumstances in 2009 as Liu took nearly two full seconds off the previous mark while wearing the infamous Speedo LZR Racer, a performance-enhancing supersuit that was already banned in the U.S., and whose worldwide ban was set to take effect three months after Liu's race.

That confluence of events means Liu's