{"id":616583,"date":"2025-08-05T04:37:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T11:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=616583"},"modified":"2025-08-05T11:38:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T18:38:34","slug":"olympic-champion-mark-tewksbury-how-swimming-taught-me-to-speak-up-and-lead-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/olympic-champion-mark-tewksbury-how-swimming-taught-me-to-speak-up-and-lead-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Champion Mark Tewksbury: How Swimming Taught Me to Speak Up and Lead Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Olympic Champion Mark Tewksbury: How Swimming Taught Me to Speak Up and Lead Change<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>This exclusive interview with <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/champions-speakers.co.uk\/speaker-agent\/mark-tewksbury\"><em>Mark Tewksbury<\/em><\/a><em> was conducted by <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/motivationalspeakersagency.co.uk\/news\/author\/1413\"><em>Chris Tompkins<\/em><\/a><em> of The Motivational Speakers Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark Tewksbury<\/strong> is a Canadian sporting legend, best known for winning Olympic gold in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1992 Barcelona Games. A trailblazer both in and out of the pool, Mark made history not only for his swimming achievements but also as Canada\u2019s first openly gay Olympian.<\/p>\n<p>Today, he is a celebrated advocate for human rights and inclusion, as well as one of the most sought-after <a href=\"https:\/\/olympic-speakers.com\/\">Olympian speakers<\/a> for organisations striving to foster resilience, authenticity, and performance.<\/p>\n<p>In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Mark opens up about his journey from Olympic champion to global changemaker\u2014sharing powerful reflections on representation, identity, high performance, and what it truly takes to create inclusive cultures in sport and beyond.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: You were Canada\u2019s first openly gay Olympian at a time when very few athletes had come out publicly. In your view, what role does visible representation play in empowering young LGBT+ athletes today?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark Tewksbury<\/strong>: \u201cWell, I guess it&#8217;s really important for people to see role models, people that represent them. But I have to tell you, coming out was not an easy thing. I never imagined I would share such personal stuff publicly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut there just came a moment \u2013 gosh, in 1998, so many, many years ago \u2013 long before people were talking about gay and lesbian and bisexual, transgender issues in public, long before television shows were out there, long before anybody in sport really came out&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just decided sometimes the personal becomes political, and unfortunately, I am a role model. And I can&#8217;t keep this dance of \u201cIt&#8217;s my private life, no one needs to know\u201d and \u201cWho knows and who doesn&#8217;t?\u201d And so, finally, I just decided to break those silos down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s been really interesting, you know. I&#8217;ve been a role model for many, many athletes. It was really important around the Sochi 2004 Olympic Games when Russia declared that anti-propaganda law basically excluded the LGBT community or targeted them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cComing to Sochi, there was a 17-year-old young luge athlete from Canada who was a closeted gay guy, and he was so terrified to go \u2013 to think that the Russians would be looking through his phone and his computer, and he could go to jail. He reached out to his sports psychologist, and I got to be his mentor through that process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat really brought home for me the first-hand frontline importance of being there to support the next generation and what it means for the young LGBTQ athletes to be coming up \u2013 to know that other people have been there before them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: In your early career as a speaker, you were once described by a client as being \u201ctoo openly gay.\u201d Reflecting on that moment, what impact did it have on your decision to come out publicly\u2014and what does it reveal about internalised bias in corporate environments?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark Tewksbury<\/strong>: \u201cYeah, so this was many, many years ago before I came out. And so, for a corporate client to say, \u201cYou&#8217;re too gay,\u201d I was like, \u201cWait a minute, I&#8217;m not out \u2013 I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m gay enough.\u201d So, I went the opposite. That was actually the impetus for me to come out publicly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just \u2013 when I was discriminated against, I lost a massive six-figure speaking contract. Ironically, the guy was gay himself. So, it&#8217;s one of those classic examples of, you know, sometimes the women in power don&#8217;t want other women to succeed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes, the gay that&#8217;s closeted in a corporate environment \u2013 certainly 25 years ago \u2013 was terrified of somebody that might be more \u201clooking gay\u201d than them, that it might expose them. So, I just decided, enough of this. If I&#8217;m being discriminated against and I&#8217;m not even out, what have I got to lose? So, you&#8217;re not gay enough, you&#8217;re too gay \u2013 let&#8217;s just be who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Many organisations are talking about diversity and inclusion, but meaningful progress remains uneven\u2014especially in sports. From your experience, what practical steps must be taken to create truly inclusive environments for all athletes?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark Tewksbury<\/strong>: \u201cWell, I think that we have to be really purposeful \u2013 in fact, just like the business community has to be super purposeful right now about making sure that we&#8217;re representative. You know, I think that people are sometimes miffed about this idea of diversity and inclusion, and I like to explain it really simply.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, it&#8217;s like you&#8217;re trying to make the most amazing stew or bowl of soup imaginable. Diversity is all the ingredients that go into that soup, but inclusion is the cauldron in which the soup is actually made.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that&#8217;s the culture that you create \u2013 by the language you use, the tone that you set \u2013 for people to be themselves at work. And the stronger that cauldron is, the more those ingredients can get the best out of themselves and fully savour that soup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOtherwise, it&#8217;s totally a bland soup if nobody&#8217;s allowed to kind of shine and do their thing. So, diversity, inclusion \u2013 you just want to create the best possible soup for your culture. So, you&#8217;ve got to have that place where people feel like they can bring themselves fully to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Your journey to Olympic gold no doubt required extreme discipline, focus, and resilience. How did competing at the Olympic Games help shape your philosophy on leadership, performance, and life beyond sport?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark Tewksbury<\/strong>: \u201cThe Olympics have completely shaped who I am. They really taught me the fundamentals of high performance: how to lead myself to amazing results, how to lead others, and how to sustain it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, the Olympic movement \u2013 it&#8217;s the athletes, it&#8217;s the coaches, but it&#8217;s also sustained by values and something that gives it all meaning. Without that sort of other layer, the gold medal doesn&#8217;t mean that much.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, it&#8217;s really taught me a lot about high performance. And there&#8217;s this myth that high performance is for the elite \u2013 you know that it&#8217;s an elite idea \u2013 but actually, the fundamentals of high performance, I started as an eight-year-old kid. All the way through, the trajectory took me obviously to the highest levels of what I did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut high performance is really that ability to constantly improve, to constantly evaluate what you&#8217;re doing and find ways to be better today than I was yesterday. And I think that&#8217;s a philosophy that works well not just through the Olympics in sports but in life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Olympians are often seen as the pinnacle of personal achievement. From your perspective, what are the most critical personal qualities required to succeed at the highest level of competition\u2014and how do they translate beyond the sporting arena?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark Tewksbury<\/strong>: \u201cWell, I think there are all kinds of them. I think there are many, many micro-skills that are needed to be successful \u2013 to bring your best in whatever we&#8217;re doing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it requires a lot of self-awareness. Requires agility. Requires resilience to get through the tough times. It requires mental fortitude to be strong when sometimes you might want to give up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt requires being open to change and flexible and adaptable \u2013 to do things differently. So, you know, it just laid such a solid foundation to pivot and to kind of do what&#8217;s needed to be successful in this moment. And once you do that step, then look to the next one after that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This exclusive interview with <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/champions-speakers.co.uk\/speaker-agent\/mark-tewksbury\"><em>Mark Tewksbury<\/em><\/a><em> was conducted by <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/motivationalspeakersagency.co.uk\/news\/author\/1413\"><em>Chris Tompkins<\/em><\/a><em> of The Motivational Speakers Agency. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Olympic Champion Mark Tewksbury: How Swimming Taught Me to Speak Up and Lead Change This exclusive interview with Mark Tewksbury was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers 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