Olympics: France upsets U.S. in 4x100 relay

France's Clement Lefert, Amaury Leveaux and Fabien Gilot celebrate after winning the men's 4 x 100m freestyle relay final swimming event at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Park on July 29, 2012 in London. / CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images

(AP) LONDON - France upset favored Australia and the United States to win the 4x100-meter freestyle relay at the London Olympics on Sunday.

The Americans led all the way until Yannick Agnel pulled ahead of Ryan Lochte in the final lap.

France clocked 3 minutes, 9.93 seconds, and the Americans settled for silver in 3:10.38. Russia took bronze in 3:11.41.

Pre-race favorite Australia was fourth.

It was sweet revenge for the French, who lost a close race to the Americans in Beijing four years ago.

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London Olympics: July 28-29, 2012

[RealiteBites]

Wow, what a reversal of fortune for Lochte in terms of all the publicity hype. I guess everybody thought that since Michael Phelps did so well in 2008, and Lochte is beating Phelps now, then he must be the new Michael Phelps. But he's not.

Michael's supposedly like the most naturally-gifted swimmer in the world because of his body - his extra-long torso, his big feet, he's double-jointed. I guess he just spent a little too much time on the pot and McD's and that cut into his edge. But he's still one of the greatest of all-time.

Maybe it's too early to count him out ...