What kind of cancer did eric shanteau

Shanteau finished the men's yard breaststroke in The year-old Georgia native drew international attention before the Beijing Games in China when he postponed treatment so he could compete in the Olympics.

There, he swam a personal best in the meter breaststroke on August 13, finding cancer to be strong motivation, but he did not qualify for the finals. Just a week later he returned to the United States, where he had surgery August 26 in Atlanta to remove the cancer. Tests revealed that most of the cancer was successfully removed and that he would not need chemotherapy.

He returned to the water with renewed determination three weeks later, an ambitious feat with a painful ending. Six more weeks of intense training and he showed up at the Short Course Nationals, his first competition since Beijing and surgery. Appreciate the small things. He's been compared to Lance Armstrong, the world-renowned cyclist who was diagnosed at 25 with advanced testicular cancer.

Armstrong beat the disease before going on to winning the Tour de France a record seven times. Instead of having a course of preventive chemotherapy, again recommended by doctors, Shanteau chose to skip the drug cocktail.

But the thing with the chemo cocktail is that even one round might sterilize you. I wanted to stay away from that. And it would have affected my swimming for a while. So Shanteau has lived a gut-wrenching life for the last three years. For the first year after surgery he went to be tested for cancer every two months. In the second year, that became every four months. Jeri Moss Shanteau, who is from Riverside and who met her future husband when both were swimmers at Auburn, said that first year post-surgery was difficult.

Shanteau originally found out about his cancer on June 19, , less than a week before the U. He made the team anyway, though he failed to make the eight-man final in his only event, the meter breaststroke, despite swimming a career-best time. After his surgery, Shanteau was back in the pool within three weeks. I think he saw our program and thought he could get something new from it. Eric feels if he can go that fast, then the U. Shanteau, 28, is among a group of five American breaststrokers — including Brendan Hansen, who has the second-fastest time in the world behind Kitajima, and Marcus Titus, who was born deaf and recently persuaded USA Swimming to use hand signals at the U.

Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. Olympic team. Eric now had a difficult decision: go for his Olympic dream or have immediate surgery and give up on competing in Beijing. Advice from his father, Rick, a lung cancer survivor , may have helped Eric make that decision. But if you decide to take ownership of it and take control of it, then you can go on living your life.

After careful consideration and consultation with a team of experts, Eric decided to chase his Olympic dream. Luckily, his cancer was found early, allowing him to monitor the disease with a battery of weekly tests and to keep his Olympic dream alive. I was dealing with it the whole time, being tested and being monitored.

After Beijing, Eric returned to Atlanta for surgery to remove the cancerous testicle. Doctors are still monitoring his disease to determine if more treatment, such as chemo, will be needed.

With surgery behind him, Eric has returned to the water. For now, his focus is on the World Championship in Rome. London or no London, Eric Shanteau is, and always will be, an Olympian.