It's déjà vu all over again. Nearly a year after stunning the heavily-favored French in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay at the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps and his American teammates earned the top spot on the podium in that relay on the opening night of the swimming world championships in Rome.

Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Matt Grevers and Nathan Adrian won gold for the U.S., as Adrian's blistering anchor leg helped topple the French and Russian teams. Remarkably, the  French squad (that included Beijing goat Alain Bernard) finished in third behind Russia, a monumental collapse for the premiere sprinters in the world.

Coming into the race, France boasted four of the top six sprint freestylers in the world, all of whom had broken 48 seconds in the event this year. Conversely, the Americans didn't have a single sprinter who had gone under that time. And, to make the situation even more daunting, the hero from Beijing, Jason Lezak, isn't competing in Rome. (He opted to represent the United States at the Maccabai Games in Israel.)

But that didn't stop the Americans from defending their Olympic crown. After Phelps touched in third to open the race, Lochte and Grevers made up ground on the Russians before Adrian swam a scorching 46.61 to touch the wall in first. 

It was last July that Bernard made headlines for saying that his French relay would "smash" the Americans in Beijing, only to eventually lose in one of the most thrilling races in Olympic history when Lezak made his stunning comeback in the final 25 meters. This time around, Bernad wasn't so talkative. He and his French teammates were so disappointed with their bronze medal finish that they blew off the post-race press conference.