SPORTS FLASHBACK 1993: Olympic champion captivates Steinbach Chamber audience

Olympic swimming gold medalist Mark Tewksbury of Calgary told a Steinbach audience that one of the most important factors of his winning the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona was that he only finished fifth in Seoul in 1988.

Tewksbury, who became an instant Canadian hero with his dramatic win in the 100-metre backstroke in Barcelona in July, was the guest speaker at the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce annual banquet Saturday night at Friedensfeld Community Centre.

The 24-year-old Calgary swimmer says finishing fifth in 1988 was ‘okay’, but he had given up on himself. He had gone into the race scared and wasn’t mentally prepared.

It was at that point he decided to keep on swimming for another four years to try and realize his dream. He also saw other Canadians win gold at Seoul, and it made him realize he wasn’t satisfied with fifth.

Four years of intensive training for the University of Calgary political science student culminated with the Canadian swim team leaving for Barcelona in May, 1993, to continue their training a full two months prior to the beginning of the Olympics.

Tewksbury provided the 275 people who attended the banquet with a behind the scenes look at the Olympics that Canadians didn’t see on television or read in the daily accounts in the newspapers.

Such as his decision not to march in the opening ceremonies because of the gruelling six or seven hour wait in 36 degree temperatures prior to the ceremonies beginning.

He decided the opening ceremonies would be too tiring, “I needed to be rested for my event.” Hopefully, that would also give him a jump on his four closest competitors. But he was shocked to find those same competitors having lunch together at the Olympic Village cafeteria, as they had also opted out of the opening ceremonies. “So much for my edge.”

Tewksbury says dealing properly with the Olympic Village experience was crucial to being successful at the Olympics. He says rooming with nine other guys is not an easy thing, although they all got along fine.

The Olympic Village, a city in itself, housed 16,000 athletes, and included its own beach, movie theatre and restaurants. “It was very easy to be distracted.”

Accustomed to maybe swimming in front of “50 friends and family at home,” the Olympic swimming finals had 10,000 people jammed into the stadium.

As he dove into the water for the warm-ups for the 100-metre backstroke, Tewksbury said he could hear the Canadians contingent cheering over the din of the huge crowd cheering for their hometown favorite, Lopez.

The backstroke event is started in the pool and Tewksbury knew he was going to be behind after the first of two lengths.

“My strength is in the second leg, and at the turn I trailed by a full body length.”

He slowly started to gain on the world champion, and with five metres to go, they were in a dead heat. Two more strokes and the 6-foot, one-inch Canadian touched the wall first.

Tewksbury didn’t know he had won until the results were posted on the scoreboard. He had finished in a time of 53.98 seconds, while Rouse had a time of 54.04.

The former champion, who came over to congratulate Tewksbury, was stunned at the time the Canadian had achieved. In a sport where the results are often settled in hundredths of a second, Tewksbury had shaved an incredible 1.21 off his personal best to win the gold medal.

The following day, Tewksbury teamed up with three others to win the bronze in the 4×100 metre relay.