GWANGJU – Just seven months ago Belgian decathlete Thomas Van Der Plaetsen was recovering from a bout of chemotherapy treatment for testicular cancer. Today against all odds Van der Plaetsen is back on top of the podium as a repeat gold medallist in the gruelling athletics discipline of decathlon. Van der Plaetsen, coached by his brother Michael, has been training vigorously to get back into shape in order to defend his gold medal from the 2013 Universiade in Kazan, Russia.
“The past month has been really tough, there was a lot of doubt and it was just in the past month that I started getting used to the intensity of the training,” Van der Plaetsen commented. “In April and May I was barely getting through a single training session.”
It was a tight race for points. On the first day of competition Van der Plaetsen struggled with the long jump. The second day he fought back by winning the pole vault event.
“I started out with a really good hurdles and I showed one of the best jumps of my life, I’m very excited,” said Van der Plaetsen. “I was very relieved, it has been a tough two days,” said Van der Plaetsen who can now call himself the ‘World’s Greatest Athlete.’ He set a goal of at least 8,000 points and nearly made it finishing with a total of 7,952. “The first thing every decathlete feels after the 1,500m is thank god it’s over.”
Van der Plaetsen has made an incredible comeback recovering from testicular cancer that he was diagnosed with in October 2014. He made his comeback in winning fashion at the Universiade. Conquering cancer was just one stop on his road to returning to world-class form. “It’s just one of the goals, I want to perform consistently and that I keep on fighting after the period I went through.”
Van der Plaetsen was a rising star in the decathlon before being diagnosed with cancer having captured bronze at the 2014 World Indoor Championships. It was at an unannounced doping control test that he tested positive for the HCG hormone and it was discovered that the hormones were due to testicular cancer.
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Megan McPhaden (CAN), FISU Young Reporter