5-year-old battling cancer gets huge surprise from Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - It's a day this 5-year-old will most likely remember forever.

"My name is Amy!" Amy Van Dyken said. "Is your name Ethan? It's so good to meet you!"

It was pretty cool for Ethan to meet Amy Van Dyken, a swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal not once, not twice, but six times!

"I think it's inspiring for him... it gives him some hope," said Sabina Low, Ethan's mom.

Tuesday was a day of smiles for mom and her son who have been battling a rare form of cancer called neuroblastoma since Ethan's diagnosis in March.

"It's hard for Ethan to stay positive, but we know that's what this takes," Low said. "This is a mental game as much as a medical fight."

It's a mental game, that on some levels, Amy can understand after what could have been a deadly ATV accident in 2014 that left her paralyzed from the waste down.

"Don't let anybody tell you what you can or can't do," she said. "Doctors are wrong. They said I was never going to get feeling back, that I was never going to have movement, but I had both, so you know what? He's going to rock and roll. I can see it in his eyes."

It's a big goal this fighter plans on achieving.

"He's just always loved the water... since the day he was born, he loves swimming," Low said.

Now, he has the support of an Olympic gold medalist.

"I'll be sitting on the sidelines, cheering saying, 'I knew him when he was this big,'" Van Dyken said.