Michael Phelps had an off night. His new windmill stroke just slowed him down. He left his teammates with some catching-up to do. Heck, he didn’t even get a world record when about all you had to do was squeeze into one of those newfangled suits and dive in at the Foro Italico.

Yet, when it was done, Phelps found himself in that same ol’ place—top of the medal stand.

At his first major meet since a historic Olympics, Phelps got off to a winning start at the world championships in Rome as part of the 400-meter freestyle relay Sunday. He was actually the slowest member of the team, but the guys picked him up and beat the French again, just as they did in that memorable race last summer in Beijing.

“The best thing about this relay was they carried Michael,” said Bob Bowman, Phelps’ coach and also in charge of the U. S. men’s team. “We need the other people to step up.”

The team touched in 3 minutes, 9.21 seconds. The Russians were second in 3:09.52, while France—which sent out four of the world’s fastest sprinters, at least on paper—were relegated to the bronze at 3:09.89.