Positivity: Cancer-free Eric Shanteau back to swimming fast
From Indianapolis, Indiana; Atlanta, Georgia; and Austin, Texas:
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Eric Shanteau is swimming faster than he ever has, diving into the water every day knowing that he’s cancer-free.
That’s gratifying news to the 25-year-old breaststroker who was diagnosed with testicular cancer just weeks before last year’s U.S. Olympic trials.
He kept the stunning information to himself while competing for a spot on his first Olympic team. Shanteau earned a spot in the 200-meter breaststroke, finishing 10th in Beijing with a personal-best time.
Then he returned home to Atlanta for surgery. After a recovery period, Shanteau resumed training in Austin, Texas, with a goal of making the world championships.
He’s four laps away from a trip to Rome later this month.
Shanteau became the second American to swim under a minute in the 100 breaststroke, clocking 59.89 seconds to make him the leading qualifier going into Tuesday night’s final at the U.S. national championships.
“It gives me a lot of confidence,” he said before adding, “It doesn’t matter what happens this morning if I don’t do it tonight.”
The top two finishers qualify for the world meet.
Since March, Shanteau has posted personal bests in his signature events, the 100 and 200 breaststrokes. His 100 time in the morning preliminaries lowered his previous best of 1:00.09.
….. Just before traveling to Indianapolis, Shanteau went for a final round of blood tests that confirmed he is cancer-free, the 10th month he can celebrate such welcome news.
But memories of his recent past are never far away.
“There’s still that thought in the back of your mind, `What if there’s a recurrence?’” he said. “It’s been a difficult past eight or nine months. I have to live with it the rest of my life.”
The disease had already hit home for Shanteau, whose father Rick battled lung cancer at the same time his son was diagnosed. The elder Shanteau is in Indianapolis this week to cheer on his son, and now needs only occasional chemotherapy treatments.
“He’s doing really well,” the younger Shanteau said smiling.
Happily, Shanteau can say the same about himself.
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