The Tewk

SOURCE: Hour — Three Dollar Bill

The Tewk
by Richard Burnett.
8 September 2005

I am having a greasy breakfast with Olympic gold medallist Mark Tewksbury at Le Vieux St-Laurent, a classic diner on the Main, when The Tewk blurts out, "People think I only eat healthy food, but I eat greasy stuff just like everybody else."

Tewksbury orders an omelette and talks with that great TV voice of his, the one that makes him a perfect sports commentator on CTV and CBC, the voice that has powered him through 17 years of public speaking and made him the face (and co-president) of Montreal's 2006 OutGames.

"Male audiences are less demonstrative and it has to do with masculinity," Tewskbury says. "One time I had to speak to senior-level bankers - 200 of them - and their concern concerned me. I think they were making sure I wasn't too gay."

Which is the story of so many athletes desperately trying to fit in, trying hard to not be so obviously gay in a sports world where the closet still reigns supreme. Alberta native Tewksbury - famously in the closet for so many years - finally harnessed the power of coming out and in the process modelled himself into a personality Canadians like and trust.

"A gold medal opens doors," says Tewksbury, who won his swimming the 100-metre backstroke at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. "But you need more than a medal after 13 years."

When the Canadian swim team imploded at the Olympic Games in Athens last summer, Tewksbury was a commentator with the CBC. And what struck him was that few athletes spoke with reporters afterwards, denying children - aspiring Olympians - watching on TV back home the opportunity of seeing a hero they might identify with.

"It's a different era," Tewksbury says. "There was little money in my day. Now there's this star-system attitude. The Australian and American teams now have press agents. You have to request an interview. That wasn't heard of 10-20 years ago."

And he was back working on-camera when Montreal hosted the FINA World Aquatic Championships earlier this summer.

"The crowds turned out and they were gracious," Mark says. "And Montreal 2006 was there too. We had the biggest outreach tent during the games. It was so incredible to me because this [gay outreach] didn't exist 12 years ago. It was inconceivable. What ground we've made. And it was also important to see the delivery of the event, the site, the venues and contacts with thousands of volunteers. And we bridge, which is the whole point of gay and lesbian sport. How do you get rid of homophobia? It'll take another 10 or 20 years to change, but we've become the buzz of the Canadian sports system."

Make no mistake: Tewksbury is a great pitchman for Montreal 2006.

And - unlike me - he can't really be bothered by the pit bulls that run the Federation of Gay Games, who keep bitching (along with folks like Washington Blade executive editor Chris Crain) that Montreal walked away after spending $500,000 of hard-earned Canadian taxpayer money to win the race to host the 2006 Gay Games. When the FGG demanded financial control of the event - essentially grabbing the keys to the vault without any accountability - Montreal ended up hosting the competing 2006 OutGames while Chicago scrambled to prepare for their 2006 replacement Gay Games.

"It wasn't about the numbers. They weren't so terrifying," Mark explains. "Financial control was the deal breaker. When they [the FGG] say we walked away, it boggles my mind. After two years of trying to land a licensing agreement, we sat in Chicago [the night of Nov. 9, 2003] for 15 hours. At 2 in the morning we received a contract that once again did not reflect any of the language we had agreed to."

Before everything came to a head at an FGG convention vote the next day, Nov. 10, Mark says, "I did everything humanly possible as co-president to save it. I called every single federation member. Every single one."

Which makes the FGG's vilification of Montreal especially nasty.

To make matters worse, the FGG deliberately scheduled Chicago's replacement games two weeks ahead of Montreal's, which will run next July 29 to Aug. 5.

"It was very hurtful," Mark says. "Now I'm much more removed from it. Now I'm focused on the delivery of our [own] games. With 10 months to go we're right on target. We will deliver a budget in September that will secure delivery of the games. We are now expecting 12,000 sports participants [over 6,000 have already registered], 2,000 human rights conference participants, and 2,000 cultural participants. Globally we're looking at 16,000 people, which will make these the biggest games ever

Last week GLISA (the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association) announced at Montreal city hall that the 2009 OutGames will be held in Copenhagen, and both Manchester and São Paulo have put up their names for 2013.

"Montreal is now looking at a financial surplus for the games, and when we're done I will be busy handing over the legacy of Montreal to the next host city - a database of 50,000 contacts worldwide, media relationships with every single major market in the world, a registration system etc.," The Tewk says, flashing his million-dollar smile. "Now we're getting ready to welcome the world to Montreal in 2006."

© Hour