It's the best and worst at the same time.

U.S. swimmer Eric Shanteau learned just a week before the Olympic trials that he has testicular cancer. Then the 24-year-old goes to Omaha, Neb. for the trials and beats a former world-record holder to earn a spot on the Olympic team and a trip to Beijing.

"I was sort of like, 'This isn't real. There's no way this is happening to me right now,"' Shanteau told The Associated Press. "You're trying to get ready for the Olympics and you just get this huge bomb dropped on you."

He's going against his doctor's recommendations to have surgery now to live out his dream. Hard to fault him for that. If anything, he has learned just how precious life is and that if his lifelong dream is to compete in an Olympics, that's hard to pass up.

He couldn't do both. Treatment would have stopped his training for two weeks, less than a month before the games begin.

He'll be closely watched and says he is not going to risk his life just to swim in his first Olympics. He says he'll drop out if there's any sign his cancer is spreading.

He'll compete in the 200 breaststroke. Shanteau decided to go public with his story because he hopes to inspire others with cancer.

And he is not the first athlete to battling this form of cancer. Plano native and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong battled the disease before his record cycling run.

"Lance's agent told my coaches that I'm the closest thing to Lance Armstrong that there is on the planet right now," Shanteau said. "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."

Of course Armstrong's story launched the Livestrong wristband and Lance Armstrong Foundation, which has raised more than $250 million to support people affected by cancer.

Shanteau can both represent his country and bring a renewed focus to this form of cancer that affects about 8,000 mostly young American men each year.

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