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Fighting Back Against Cancer

Jeff Blatnik, champion Olympic wrestler, amazed the sports world by coming back from cancer (Hodgkin’s disease) to win his gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling in 1984. Then his cancer recurred in a different part of the body. How did he react?

He admits he cried. But then he resolved to fight back. “I thought, ‘Well, I beat it once, I’ll beat it again.’” He continued: “It was like I was starting all over again. I took the whole thing as a challenge. That’s all cancer is​—it’s just another adjustment in life.”

Jeff has undergone chemotherapy, which often results in side effects. But he concludes: “So much is mental. Even reaction to chemotherapy. I was determined not to get sick, and I didn’t. And you don’t have to be an Olympic champion to have that attitude. . . . It’s important for people to know that there’s life after cancer.”​—The New York Times, April 8, 1986.