Eye On Eric
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PALO ALTO, Calif. -- From one media obligation to another this morning at Stanford University, Eric Shanteau carried this pink handmade sign:
NBA Supports Eric Shanteau.
NBA is not that NBA. Shanteau, who made the U.S. Olympic team in the 200-meter breaststroke, thought it was a local swimming club.
There was another message, three simple words in cursive writing: Get Better Soon!
This public outreach at an open training session at Stanford was a second important prong of support for the 24-year-old, who found out on June 19 -- just days before the swim trials in Omaha -- that he had testicular cancer. He broke the news to the U.S. swim team -- after first telling his Texas teammates Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Ian Crocker, among others -- on Thursday night, and the room fell silent.
His girlfriend Jerri Moss, who had been a swimmer at Auburn, urged him to go to the doctor when he first noticed something was wrong. He could have easily delayed it until after Omaha but followed her advice, calling it ‘powerful persuasion.’ And, sadly, there was family experience with cancer, all too recently, as his father Richard was diagnosed with lung cancer last year.
The doctor, not knowing Shanteau was about to swim in the Olympic trials, advised immediate surgery. But Shanteau said they caught it ‘crazy early’ and that the cancer had not spread. So Shanteau went on to the trials and kept his diagnosis a secret from his teammates, though he told his coaches.
Then came an unexpected development in the 200 breaststroke final. Former world-record holder Brendan Hansen faded badly in the final stretch, finishing fourth. Scott Spann and Shanteau went one-two and are going to Beijing in that event.
But Shanteau’s joy was muted for someone who had missed making the Olympics four years ago with two third-place finishes at the trials. Some thought it was out of respect to his teammate Hansen. But even their coach Eddie Reese, usually a larger-than-life presence, looked strangely out of sorts in the mixed zone.
Everyone understood why after Thursday’s meeting.
Shanteau will delay surgery until late August, after the Olympics. He spoke today about making that tough call and disclosed there was disagreement in some quarters about waiting.
‘Trust me, I have been very, very careful about making this decision,’ Shanteau said. ‘I haven’t taken it lightly whatsoever. I’ve gotten all the facts, all the opinions, all the information from a lot of people. Just because I’m here now training doesn’t mean I’m going to be here in two weeks training.
‘I’m basically living week-to-week. That’s my situation right now. I’m having tests and scans done on a weekly basis, and if anything shows signs of rapid progress or I see some abnormalities, I’m going to have to reevaluate my position here, possibly move swimming to the back burner.’
He will be seeing doctors at Stanford and then in Singapore when the team shifts its training base at the end of this month. He calls swimming ‘my escape. Instead of thinking about cancer all day, I get to go to practice and have fun with my friends. One of the sayings I’ve picked up over the last month or so: I’ve got cancer. Cancer doesn’t have me.’
There were blood tests for the first time at trials, and his HCG levels -- an indicator for cancer -- ‘were elevated but were extremely low,’ he said.
His roommate at trials, Ian Crocker, did not have an idea anything was amiss in Omaha.
‘Everyone gets so wrapped up in swim meets, and I think it really put it into perspective for him,’ Crocker said. ‘Since we all found out about everything, it puts it in perspective for us. What this is in the grand scheme of things and how important and fragile we are.
‘Everybody kind of acts a little different around trials time. A little stressed. They tend to turn inward.’
As anyone knows, the weight of holding such a personal secret was a difficult burden, growing tougher by the day.
‘Harder than most people know,’ Shanteau said. ‘People started to suspect something was wrong, and then they start flying around with rumors and obviously no one was even close to being dead on yet. Aaron [Peirsol] could have sworn I was engaged. I was, ‘Aaron, I’ll tell you the story. Just give me some time.’ Of course he was a deer in the headlights when I told him.’
-- Lisa Dillman
