WHEN Eric Shanteau stands on the blocks for the 200m breaststroke in Beijing next month, the American swimmer will be suffering from a handicap that none of his rivals has to confront. He has testicular cancer.

The 25-year-old from Atlanta has delayed surgery, against medical advice, so that he can fulfil his lifetime ambition of competing in the Olympics. He qualified for the Games by surprisingly finishing second in the US Trials, which ended last weekend in Omaha, just days after being diagnosed with the condition.

Now Shanteau will go to China, hoping to follow the example of Lance Armstrong, seven times winner of the Tour de France, jockey Bob Champion, who was first in the 1981 Grand National, and Oxford Boat Race winner Dan Perkins, all of whom achieved sporting triumphs after recovering from cancer.

However, none of them competed at the top level immediately before undergoing an operation for the disease.

Speaking from his home in Georgia, Shanteau said: “If I didn’t make the team, the decision would have been easy: go home and have the surgery. I made the team so I had a hard decision, but by no means am I being stupid about this.”

He will be monitored over the next month and has said that he will pull out of the team if there is any indication that the cancer is spreading. Having to have an immediate operation would disrupt his preparations for the Games.

He said: “I was sort of like, ‘This isn’t real. There’s no way that this is happening to me right now’. You’re trying to get ready for the Olympics and you just get this huge bomb dropped on you.”

The cancer was discovered after Shanteau found an abnormality in his testicles and was persuaded by his girlfriend to see a doctor. When first examined, he was told that it was probably nothing more than a benign cyst. However, an ultrasound scan showed that it was more serious and he went to a specialist. On June 19, seven days before he was scheduled to leave

for the trials in Nebraska, he was informed that he had cancer. Shanteau recalls: “It almost numbed me. I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life.

“Talk about a life-changing experience. That’s as big a one as you can have, I think. You’ve changed for the rest of your life. The few people to whom I have talked who have gone through this – and they are all much, much older than I am – say that I'll know that even more in 10 years.”

The specialist said that he could compete in the Olympic Trials – in which the first two in each event automatically went to the Games irrespective of any past reputations – but also advised immediate surgery. In Omaha, Shanteau, the 2006 US champion in the 200m individual medley, a performance that included the fastest 50m breaststroke split in the history of the event, was an outsider for the US team for the 200m breaststroke.

However, Brendan Hansen, the former world record-holder, failed to maintain his early pace on the last lap and was overhauled by Scott Spann, the winner, and Shanteau. Although delighted at fulfilling his ambition, Shanteau, who won two World Student Games titles in 2005, was still in a state of shock about the diagnosis of cancer.

He said: “A lot of people kept asking me after the race, ‘What was going on? We thought we would get a little more reaction out of you’. That kind of made it a little bittersweet. It went well. I made the team. Then I had to go back and deal with reality. The trials were great. They actually took my mind off the cancer. I was getting exhausted thinking about it nonstop for two straight weeks. The trials were my release, kind of a way to get away from it.”

Shanteau had told very few people of his condition before the trials. Not even his agent, Evan Morgenstein, was informed until after the event. He said: “I was in shock. I am still in shock. When a great person such as Eric tells you he has bad news, you figure that he may have pulled a muscle or twisted an ankle. This is hard to understand.”

The agency that represents Armstrong has already been in touch with Shanteau, who says: “They said that I am the closest thing to Lance that there is on the planet right now. If I can have a fraction of the impact that he’s had, just a tiny little bit, then I think what I’m going through will be good.”