From where the other three members of this relay team stood, they watched along with everyone else inside the Water Cube as Lezak -- self-described "late-bloomer," a 32-year-old graybeard in a peachfuzz sport -- hauled off after Bernaird, the chatty Frenchmen, for what was surely a fruitless pursuit, what was sure to be a prophesy fulfilled. After all, it was Bernard who'd proclaimed defiantly in the days leading up to this showdown: "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for."
