Swimmer describes an Olympian battle

Swimmer Eric Shanteau says nothing will stop him from making the Olympics in London.

Not even a diagnosis of cancer just before the trials.

"I'm going to be there," he says. "There's no question in my mind."

And just like that Shanteau became a huge story leading up to the games, and the fact that its more about his health and less about his swimming is OK with him.

"I guess I kind of expected it," Shanteau says. "Like I've been saying, cancer is bigger than swimming. This is your life, its bigger than a sport so I just kind of turn it into a positive in that you take some of the pressure off of swimming.

"And I think that's been working pretty well for me in that I don't think about racing and don't get too worked up about actually swimming in the Olympics."

One thing that's made the process a little easier is that Shanteau has so much support from the Austin swimmers on this Olympic team.

Says Olympian Brendan Hansen: "The biggest impact is that we realized what we are doing here is not as on a high of a pedestal as we like to put it.

"What he's going through, we just immediately went the supportive route. And like we said, we're going to be behind him every step of the way, it doesn't end here."

Shanteau agrees

"Those guys are like my family," he says. "And it's great to have such a big group of UT guys here to fall back on. Those guys are my immediate support system here because they're the guys that I'm seeing everyday."

Shanteau admits that he was prepared to skip the games and move right to his treatment. But his latest blood work revealed that the cancer had not spread, so its full steam ahead with his first race.

"When I'm behind those blocks, there's nothing in my mind except racing," Shanteau says. "It's just basically me and the pool at that point. For all the thoughts that and everything else that I have going on in my head, I know that as soon as I leave that parade room, it's all gone."

Olympian Dara Torres says: "He's so amazing, I look at him and I cannot believe what he is going through and he still has that drive to want to be here and be with the team and do his best, it's just an amazing thing to watch."