Keeping the torch of hope alive

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By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-13 08:23

For thousands of reporters combing for off-beat stories at the Games host city, those of a cancer-afflicted athlete and an Olympic cheering squad battling the same disease could be just the right stuff.

They are a testament to the fact that each and every person, athlete or average, could grab a medal for themselves - in their own way.

The athlete, swimmer Eric Shanteau from the US, has in fact made headlines in his home and host countries by deciding to put off surgery so as to compete in Beijing, after being diagnosed with testicular cancer only two months ago.

It was not known whether Shanteau had kept Pierre de Coubertin's message in his mind when he took the tough decision. The message, as everyone knows by now, reads, "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part".

But the 24-year old has proved that he understood better the second half of the famous saying by the principal organizer of the modern Olympic Games: "The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."

Shanteau has "taken advantage" of the illness to "fight well".

"A lot of times when you get to an event like the Olympic Games, you can put too much pressure on yourself," Shanteau told reporters on Monday. "I've kind of got an out with cancer."

It is fair to say that Shanteau's courage of not letting anything stand in his way of reaching the Olympics deserves everyone's respect every bit as much as any of the gold-winning US swimmers, even though he may leave China without a medal around his neck.

So it is encouraging to know that while the world press cast the spotlight on his colleagues like super swimming fish Michael Phelps, the Chinese media has singled out Shanteau as "a figure whose name must be remembered" in the records of Beijing Olympics.

For Shanteau it is perhaps even more encouraging to know that he is not alone in competing with cancer at the Games in Beijing.

A special Olympic cheering squad comprising cancer patients from Shanghai is lending its support to Shanteau and other athletes, waving the Olympic banners in venues .

Nearly 200 visitors, organized by the Shanghai Cancer Recovery Club, made their way to Beijing yesterday, fulfilling a five-year goal they set themselves in 2003 - that they would survive to watch the Beijing Olympics.

Perhaps no doctor would prescribe waiting for and watching the Olympic Games as a therapy for cancer victims. But Qiu Haidi and other members of the cheering squad said they believe it works.

Over the past five years, the Shanghai cancer club had asked Qiu and other patients to deposit 2 yuan a day to their savings pot, a way of amassing money for a trip to Beijing and also a way of seeding hope during down times.

"What has supported my life to go on is the ambition of coming to Beijing to watch the Olympics," Qiu, 68, with lung cancer, said. "This is the last and the most important thing in my life."

It is true that China has stunned the world with an intoxicating opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, impressive skylines of the host cities, and an improved sense of environmental conservation among its businesses and decision-makers.

But the Chinese media report on the US swimmer and the Olympic cheering squad seem to illustrate another aspect of how the Olympics is reshaping the lives of Chinese people and how far the spirit of the Games has penetrated.

For Qiu and her colleagues, the Olympics is a source of strength to sustain their lives and the modern Olympic motto -"faster, higher, stronger" - best captures their everyday "competition", that is to endure.

It is this message of the Olympics that has empowered many people throughout China, one that began its journey seven years ago, when our nation was chosen to host the world's greatest sporting event.

(China Daily 08/13/2008 page10)