Matthew Glaetzer: ‘I'm treating this like a little injury. Cancer won’t hold me back’ | Kieran Pender
18 November 2019 05:00
Just weeks after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, Australia’s Olympic medal hopeful is focused on upcoming Track World Cups“It definitely rocks you.” Australian track cycling star Matthew Glaetzer is reflecting on a “whirlwind” month that has seen his preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics derailed by a cancer diagnosis. “When you hear the ‘C’ word – you always think it won’t happen to you, but suddenly you have to deal with it yourself,” he tells Guardian Australia.Glaetzer is Australia’s best male track sprinter at the moment, with two world championship titles and three Commonwealth Games gold medals to his name. But Olympic success has eluded him. Once at London 2012 and twice at Rio 2016, Glaetzer finished fourth – a bronze medal agonisingly out of reach. “I was feeling confident I could get the job done in Tokyo,” he says. “I believed I could finally clinch a medal at the Olympics.” Related: Shane Sutton ‘constantly’ on Richard Freeman’s case, tribunal hears Related: Matthew Glaetzer keeps focus on Tokyo Olympics despite cancer surgery Continue readingread full article
