Track cyclist Matthew Glaetzer recovering after surgery for thyroid cancer
Cyclist Matthew Glaetzer was preparing for the Tokyo Olympics when he got the phone call telling him he had cancer. But the two-time world champion is determined surgery won’t stop him from competing.
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Two-time track cycling world champion and Tokyo Olympic gold medal contender Matthew Glaetzer has had surgery for thyroid cancer after a shock diagnosis while investigating a sore neck.
The 27-year-old South Australian had a thyroidectomy and neck dissection on Monday and will start a course of radioactive iodine tablets in six weeks but hopes to be back on his bike in just days.
Glaetzer was diagnosed on October 25 when he got a phone call with the news while in a taxi on his way to the Melbourne Airport after wind tunnel testing in preparation for next year’s Tokyo Games which remain his burning ambition.
The two-time Olympian from London and Rio and three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist who last year became the first Australian since 2002 to win track cycling’s individual sprint world title, says he has leant on the support of his family, friends and teammates as well as his faith in God to help him through.
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“One of the first thoughts I had in regard to my cycling career and Tokyo was ‘I’m not going to let this stop me’, if I am able to and if it’s safe to, then you know what? I’m not going to let this have power over what I do,” Glaetzer told the Sunday Mail.
“I have some goals I want to achieve and Tokyo is the big target, and that hasn’t changed. I’m not going to stop chasing the Olympics and being the best in the world.
“I have drawn on my faith in God that he’s got it under control and drawn on his peace through this process.
“It’s the beginning of the next chapter in my life because I’ll never be the same after this, so just to stay calm and know there are some really good medical people looking after me.
“And I was thankful that it is treatable, a lot of other people have much worse so I was grateful that my medical team was very diligent and caught it when they did.
“Yes there was the initial shock but at the same time I thought ‘well, God’s got it and I need to stick to the process’.
“The support network has been fantastic and it’s a credit to the team at Cycling Australia because there is more to life than riding bikes and we care about each other outside of cycling and that’s really shown through the last two weeks.”
Glaetzer was doing a leg press exercise in the gym about three weeks ago when he thought he’d strained his neck leading up to the Oceania Championships in New Zealand.
He sought further treatment after his range of neck movement was affected and doctors ordered an MRI scan after competition to inspect a possible bulging disc.
“It didn’t show any cause of the injury but it did show a couple of nodules on my thyroid gland that aren’t normally there, and they could either be benign or malignant, so they just wanted to check to see if they were all good.”
But it was during the ultrasound he was told it was “looking cancerous.”
“I kind of shrugged it off but they wanted me to contact my doctor in the next hour and have a CT scan and biopsy,” Glaetzer said.
“I had a feeling it was probably going down a line I didn’t want it to.”
Glaetzer took a scheduled flight to Melbourne that night ahead of wind tunnel equipment testing the next day and told his medical team to call him with the results of the biopsy.
“I was checking my phone waiting for a call, then driving to the airport I got it saying ‘it’s positive for thyroid cancer and we need to start the process of dealing with it’.
“You never want to hear that you’ve got cancer, it’s got such an ominous connotation to it and it’s pretty heavy, and I’ve got the taxi driver next to me when I’ve just been told.
“You need to take a moment to be like ‘OK’,
“Thankfully it’s very treatable and has a great prognosis and given we caught it relatively early was a blessing.”
Glaetzer told his family and teammates but hid the news from his grandmother who he did not want to worry until after his surgery - which posed a small but permanent risk to his vocal cords - had been successful.
Glaetzer is aware of reports as recently as last week about health warnings for Olympic athletes visiting Japan for next year’s Games, following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
There are claims the rate of thyroid cancer diagnosis has increased in the region and Glaetzer spent eight months over the past two years living and racing in Japan as part of a lucrative keririn series, but the closest he came to Fukushima was 150km.
He and Cycling Australia say they have no concerns about any potential link between his time in Japan and his cancer diagnosis, or about going back to the Japan for the Games next year.
Fukushima is set to host softball and baseball during the Games while track cycling
will be at Izu over 400km away.
Glaetzer also said there was a history of minor thyroid problems in his family.
“The closest I was to Fukushima was 150km and we have assurances from the Australian Olympic Committee who get constant updates on that situation, so I have full confidence going to Japan and I’m not thinking of that being the cause of why I have this,” Glaetzer said.
Cycling Australia high performance director Simon Jones said Glaetzer’s health was its number one priority.
“We’ve sought the assurances from the AOC and they’ve been liaising with the IOC who’s responsible for the Games and are assessing the situation,” Jones said.
“Where Matt spent the vast majority of his time and where the cycling disciplines will be in Tokyo, there is very, very low risk and we are happy with that.
“The health and wellbeing of the athletes is the number one priority and we’ve done all that we can to support Matt through this. It’s always a bit of a shock but the surgery went really well and we’ve been speaking to him about the next steps and easing back into training.
“We’ve got to take it day by day really, we don’t want to rush back. Matt is very motivated to get back in the gym and he’s done an amazing job psychologically.”
Glaetzer still hopes to ride two world cups this season in Cambridge, New Zealand, and in Brisbane in December.
“I should be able to get back on my bike relatively soon, because they did just touch my throat, my legs are good to go and I just need to manage this recovery process,” he said.
“It’s about keeping my heart rate low and blood pressure down for the next week or two and then getting back on the bike, seeing what I can do, seeing what range I have with my neck.”
He also hopes his experience will encourage other men to get checked out by their doctor if they are concerned something is not quite right with their body.
“It’s men’s health awareness month and guys have that ‘it will be right’ mentality sometimes but it’s important if something is unusual, just get it checked because you don’t know what it could be,” he said.
Glaetzer was a junior pole vaulter who turned to cycling after a come-and-try triathlon in his teens and became a dual junior world champion in 2010.
In 2012 he became senior team sprint world champion and competed in the London Olympics and the Rio Games in 2016 where narrowly missed the podium at both Games.
Last year he became the first Australian since Sean Eadie in 2002 to win the individual sprint world title when he triumphed in The Netherlands.
reece.homfray@news.com.au