Cancer-free Shanteau sees big gains

小臭贝

Almost one year ago, Eric Shanteau was living his normal life as he geared up for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.

Wake up and go swim.

Lift some weights.

Swim some more.

He felt healthy and strong heading into the summer.

But then he discovered something on his body, something that just didn’t seem right. Shanteau visited his doctor to have this mysterious lump checked out. What he learned was the last thing he wanted to hear.

Cancer.

Shanteau was diagnosed with testicular cancer shortly before the Olympic Trials. Could he still swim at the meet, held in Omaha, Neb.? Yes, the doctors gave him the OK to compete for a spot at the Beijing Olympics. And then, when Shanteau qualified for the Games in the 200m breaststroke, he was faced with another decision: Should he put off surgery until after the Olympics, or must he skip the Games and have surgery immediately?

His doctors allowed him to swim in Beijing and postpone the surgery to remove the cancerous testicle.

“It kinda caught up to me after it was all done,” said Shanteau on the ordeal he experienced last summer. “Everything happened so fast, I didn’t really have time to think about it. But obviously when you’re sitting in the doctor’s office and you have a diagnosis like that, you definitely have the flood of emotions. You’re angry, you’re upset, sad and everything else.”

Shanteau, who did not win a medal in Beijing, returned home on Aug. 20. His surgery took place on Aug. 26. The procedure was a success and six weeks later, he was back in the water. His comfort zone. The place where nothing else seems to matter.

Now 25, Shanteau said he’s in the best shape of his life. Universal Sports caught up with him at the Charlotte UltraSwim recently, where he earned a trio of medals -- gold in the 200m breaststroke, silver in the 100m breaststroke and bronze in the 200m IM. The swimmer said he’s still cancer free.

“Everything’s good,” said Shanteau, wearing, in his words, an “old school” swimsuit that was merely a set of swimming briefs. “I actually had a test, another checkup, on Friday of last week. I got the results back and everything was still good, clean and clear. That makes eight months now, so we’re doing real good.”

‘A lot stronger’
Shanteau noted that since returning from surgery, he has gotten stronger in the weight room. His maximum bench press is up about 40 pounds, his stamina during training sessions is better and he’s packed on 10 pounds of muscle. Shanteau works out with coaches Eddie Reese and Doug Rusk at Longhorn Aquatics in Austin, Texas.

“It’s way above where it was last summer, which is really, really really good because I made a conscious effort to be the strongest I ever was going into Trials and going into the Olympics. And I was,” said Shanteau on his current fitness level. “Since then, I don’t know what cancer did to me but I put on probably 10 pounds of muscle and got a lot stronger in the weight room and during our dry-land stuff.”

Being strong is more important now than it ever has been for swimmers because of what others are doing. Just as wearing ultra-slimming swimsuits is key toclocking fast times, adding some muscle is also a must. Competitors have to spend hours in the weight room every week in order to keep up with Michael Phelps, Frederick Bousquet and many others whose
upper bodies resemble those of a bodybuilder instead of a swimmer.

During an interview with a few members of the media, Shanteau was asked if he took any medications before and/or after his surgery. Patients that undergo chemotherapy, for example, are often given medicine that contains EPO -- a blood-boosting ingredient that is banned throughout all sports.

Shanteau chuckled when the question was posed, and said that he was never on any medications.

National team by national team’
Shanteau made his post-Beijing debut at the U.S. short-course championships in December, where he won a pair of silver medals (200-yard IM, 200-yard breaststroke) and one bronze medal (100-yard breaststroke).

He then swam at the Missouri Grand Prix in February, winning gold in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and silver in the 200m IM. At the Austin Grand Prix in March, Shanteau swept the 100m and 200m breaststroke top spots. Shanteau set personal-best times in both his victories in Austin, clocking in at 1 minute, 0.09 seconds in the 100m breast and 2:09.97 in the 200m breast. He broke his 200m breast mark in Charlotte after touching the wall in 2:09.71.

And speaking of times, where does Shanteau feel he’s at in his training as this summer’s U.S. and world championships approach?

“My goals back in January, the goal times that I had, they’ve been refined over the past two months, watching [how fast] the rest of the world has gone,” he replied. “So the places that I wanted to be at world championships this summer, with the times I thought would do it, are no longer good. I’ve kinda just thrown goal times out the window and now I’m just getting back up there.

“If I go some extraordinarily fast time, great. If I’m right around my old goal times, great. I am not really back there with a set time in mind. I had a standard, but it’s not as set as it was.”

Last summer, Shanteau’s plan was to finish his career at the 2009 World Championships. But now, with the big gains he’s seen in the weight room and in the pool, Shanteau has reassessed that initial thought. He is focusing on one national team at a time, but hinted at making a run at the London Olympics in 2012.

“This year we’re definitely not looking past world championships trials and world championships in Rome,” Shanteau surmised. “That’s the short-term goal coming up in the next three or four months. And then obviously you take it year by year, you take it national team by national team. That’ll take you through your four-year plan up until London.

“Obviously at the end of it all sits the next Olympics, but like I said right now, I’m not gonna look past the national teams as they come up.”

London or no London however, the most important thing is that Shanteau is healthy again.