U.S. Olympic Wrestler Jeff Blatnick Says Cancer Has Recurred

Jeff Blatnick, who tearfully exclaimed “I’m one happy dude” after overcoming Hodgkin’s disease to win an Olympic wrestling gold medal in 1984, said Friday he is once again battling cancer.

Blatnick said he underwent chemotherapy from last September to February after a biopsy revealed that a growth near his groin was cancerous.

“I took the whole thing as a challenge,” he said. “That’s all cancer is--it’s just another adjustment in my life.”

The 28-year-old Blatnick said he received his last chemotheraphy injection at a Schenectady hospital on Feb. 14--”on Valentine’s Day, I showed up in a tuxedo”--and that he is now thinking of trying to resume his wrestling career.

According to Blatnick, a CAT scan performed last week revealed that the growth he discovered in September had decreased in size since the chemotherapy began.

Another CAT scan is planned in the next four to six months. If that one reveals no increase in the growth, Blatnick said he would consider the cancer in remission.

“I really do feel good,” he said. “And I’m noticing a definite improvement in my energy levels. My appetite and my fluid levels have greatly increased, too.”

Blatnick, who is from Niskayuna, N.Y., has not wrestled competitively since the Olympics, when he won the Greco-Roman superheavyweight gold medal in Los Angeles. An interview immediately after the championship match, in which an ecstatic Blatnick became too choked with tears to talk, was one of the United States team’s emotional highlights.

Few people knew at the time that Blatnick had undergone radiation treatment and two operations after Hodgkin’s disease was discovered in his neck in 1982.

He said he was initially depressed when notified last September that the biopsy revealed the cancer had returned.

“I cried when I hung up the phone,” he said.

Since the 1984 Games, Blatnick said he had been on the road virtually non-stop, conducting wrestling clinics and speaking at banquets. He had also made several appearances on behalf of the American Cancer Society and the Leukemia Society of America.

“My whole life, I’ve had the ability to go out and throw my energy around in athletics,” Blatnick said. “I watched that disintegrate for a while. That was frustrating.”

He was forced to reduce his physical exercise to walking during the most taxing of the chemotherapy treatments.

However, he said he did not lose his hair or his appetite. He said he weighs “an embarrassing” 255 pounds, seven pounds more than his Olympic weight.

Blatnick, who was to be the guest speaker at a Leukemia Society dinner in New York Friday night, said he is upset about the way most people regard those fighting cancer.

“What is a cancer patient supposed to look like?” he asked. “What is a cancer patient supposed to act like? I wish people would realize that we are capable of anything.

“We would like to believe these things (a cancer recurrence) won’t happen . . . but that’s not cause to go into complete depression and throw your life away,” he added. “I’m right back where I started from and, hey, I’ve got the chance. That’s all you can ask for.”

He said he is not certain he will be able to resume competitive wrestling, but he said he would begin training with that goal in mind and make a decision within about six months.

“I’m going to try to improve myself to the point where I’m competitive again . . . to let people know there’s life after cancer,” he said.