CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Eric Shanteau is among the Olympic swimmers competing this weekend at the Charlotte UltraSwim.
For Shanteau, this weekend is about more than beating other swimmers. It's about beating cancer.
Cancer free for a year and a half, Shanteau still has to deal with regular testing. The 26-year-old will spend this weekend waiting for test results, but he'll have something to keep him busy.
Shanteau will race Michael Phelps at Charlotte's UltraSwim.
"It's always really good to race the best guy in the world," he said.
Shanteau himself is among the best swimmers in the world and an Olympian. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer just days before the 2008 Olympic trials, but delayed treating his cancer to compete in the games.
"There are two labels that I have and I got them pretty much at the same time. I don't want to be just a cancer survivor. I don't want to be just an Olympian. They're two badges I'm proud to have and I want to make the most out of both of them," he said.
Just before doing his warm-up at the UltraSwim, Shanteau visited cancer patients at Presbyterian's rehab center.
Josh Stein came in to meet him because Stein, too, survived testicular cancer.
"It's good to know people are going through the same thing you're going through," Stein said.
Shanteau, he says, has given him hope.
"Hope is an easy thing to lose but it's also one of the biggest things you can have," Shanteau said. "Through my whole experience I had hope that I would be able to stay on the Olympic team and compete in the Olympics, and my hope after that was that I would be able to return to swimming and be better than I was before, and I've done that."
It was last year, after his cancer diagnosis and recovery, that Shanteau started setting world records.
"The hope now is to remain cancer free and return to the Olympics and not have that gorilla on my back," Shanteau said.
