BEIJING — When little-known Eric Shanteau beat Brendan Hansen, the defending Olympic bronze medalist, for the second spot in the 200 breaststroke, it was considered the biggest upset of the U.S. Swimming Trials.
How little did we know that Shanteau had another opponent bearing down on him, a much more serious one.
Shanteau, 24, made the Olympic team with the fresh knowledge that he had testicular cancer. He is delaying a surgery critical to his recovery to swim here Tuesday in the preliminaries. He has emerged as the new big story on the U.S. swim team but it’s not a feel-good story. Not yet.
Shanteau, however, makes every one else around him feel good with his sense of humor.
“Staying focused has been pretty easy,” he told a packed news conference here. “A lot of times when you get to an event like this, an Olympic Games, you’re going to put way too much pressure on yourself. I kind of got an out with cancer.”
The former Auburn swimmer’s life turned upside down before the biggest meet of his life. With the Olympic Trials approaching and Shanteau a contender — but not a favorite – to make the team, he noticed a lump. His girlfriend, Jeri Moss, insisted he see his physician and initial tests showed nothing.
Ultrasound, however, showed something irregular and a specialist dropped the bomb. He had cancer. The Trials were a week away. It turns out, in a weird way, cancer helped him beat Hansen.
“It absolutely helps my training,” Shanteau said. “It just takes the pressure off swimming. If you ask any swimmer, when the pressure’s off you swim faster.”
Only one problem. If he went to the Olympics, would it be the last swim meet he ever entered? Some cancer experts recommend operating as soon as possible.
Shanteau consulted with Larry Einhorn, doctor of cyclist Lance Armstrong, who also had testicular cancer. Einhorn is one of the scientists who helped turn the success rate for early stage cancer from about 5 percent in the 1980s to 95-99 percent.
Einhorn gave Shanteau the green light.
“When you basically have the best doctor in the world telling you you’re going to be OK, you have confidence,” Shanteau said.
Shanteau comes from good stock. He grew up in Lilburn, Ga., the son of a retailer father and a college English professor mother. His older brother, Ryan, swam at Georgia Tech. Eric became the first male in history to win a college national title and boast a 4.0 grade-point average.
He always had inner strength. He just didn’t know how much.
“What I show the public is my positive side,” he said. “But this isn’t the flu. It’s cancer. When I have down time, days when there’s not much going on, it’s on my mind constantly. I can’t help that.
“That’s how it’s going to be.”
After his race he isn’t rushing home. He’ll sight-see in Beijing for five days before returning to his base in Austin, Texas, Aug. 20. He’ll have surgery at Emory University in Atlanta the following week.
Until then, he’ll continue fielding the question that he often asks himself: Why him?
“It’s one of those things where you have to take ownership of it,” he said. “I’ve got it. I accept that and I’m going to beat it. And there’s no question in my mind.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
