Inside Out: Straight Talk from a Gay Jock [Paperback]

Mark Tewksbury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2007

Mark Tewksbury is best known as a gold-medal-winning Olympic swimmer. His remarkable sixteen-year athletic career included three Olympic medals, numerous world records, and inductions into three major halls of fame: the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, and the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Although retired as an athlete, Tewksbury remains a highly respected public figure. He delivered prized swimming analysis for the CBC from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, hosts the Discovery Channel's popular How It's Made show, and is Co-President of the first World Outgames, Montreal 2006.

Tewksbury has spoken to millions as part of his eighteen-year speaking career and remains much in demand as an inspirational speaker to companies and organizations around the world. For his active humanitarianism, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Western Ontario in 2001, and in 2005 Tewksbury was awarded the International Person of the Year Award at S?o Paulo Pride in Brazil. He currently lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

For more on Mark Tewksbury, please visit www.MarkTewksbury.com

"To reach the pinnacle of Olympic Swimming takes incredible dedication, resilience and courage that few possess. To reach your true self takes these attributes and a great deal more courage so, therefore, even fewer arrive at this point in their lives. Mark Tewksbury is one of these courageous people who achieve so much and through pain, suffering, daring, and pure fight, become who they truly are, inside and out."
--Duncan Armstrong O.A.M., Australian Olympic Swimming Legend

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In public, Mark Tewksbury has always credited the 1976 Olympics as a major inspiration for his becoming an Olympic champion swimmer, but in fact, it was wearing a towel-turban in imitation of his grandmother and swimming in her condo pool that first sparked his love of swimming. Intimate and endearing details such as these are what provide Tewksbury's story with relevance beyond the famous-athlete-fights-and-overcomes-his-personal-demons story. Granted, Tewksbury covers all the usual challenges faced by performance athletes-the sacrifices, the post-Olympic depression, the intense glare of the media spotlight-but it is his private sojourn as a gay man, from coming out of the closet to visiting his first gay bar ("it was like being in another world with fashionably dressed people drinking cocktails from martini glasses") to entering his first sexual relationship (an ongoing, three-way relationship with a male couple) that will resonate with the reader. Despite the "Gay Jock" subtitle, the book is accessible; Tewksbury comes with all the tics and quirks of your everyday gay man wrestling with his sexuality, and later, with the complexities of finding a partner and dating. A thoughtful, moving narrative that inspires as much as it entertains.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

In public, Mark Tewksbury has always credited the 1976 Olympics as a major inspiration for his becoming an Olympic champion swimmer, but in fact, it was wearing a towel-turban in imitation of his grandmother and swimming in her condo pool that first sparked his love of swimming. Intimate and endearing details such as these are what provide Tewksbury's story with relevance beyond the famous-athlete-fights-and-overcomes-his-personal-demons story. Granted, Tewksbury covers all the usual challenges faced by performance athletes-the sacrifices, the post-Olympic depression, the intense glare of the media spotlight-but it is his private sojourn as a gay man, from coming out of the closet to visiting his first gay bar ("it was like being in another world with fashionably dressed people drinking cocktails from martini glasses") to entering his first sexual relationship (an ongoing, three-way relationship with a male couple) that will resonate with the reader. Despite the "Gay Jock" subtitle, the book is accessible; Tewksbury comes with all the tics and quirks of your everyday gay man wrestling with his sexuality, and later, with the complexities of finding a partner and dating. A thoughtful, moving narrative that inspires as much as it entertains. (Publishers Weekly, April 10, 2006) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470840862
• ISBN-13: 978-0470840863
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.6 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #831,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True grit, honesty, and motivation, May 28, 2006

By 

Philip A. Tecau "Philip Tecau" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Inside Out: Straight Talk from a Gay Jock (Hardcover)

I have worked for the past 25 years with gay men in psychotherapy, and was an ex athlete myself, so I was intrigued but clinically skeptical of Mark Tewksbury's autobiography.

My skepticism was completely unfounded. He was completely forthright, struggling to find himself in an overwhelmingly staight world of elite athletics. This Olympian just took it one step at a time, in first taking advantage of his natural athletic abilities, then in slowly finding his way to come out, and then balance that coming out process with the world of sport.

What eventually emerged for me was his deep value system of honesty--of being true to himself in whatever circumstances--something which I continually drum into my gay clients, and to what I work at daily in my own life.

His book truly touched me--as an ex-athlete, as a clinician, and and as a human being who understands struggle.

Eloquent, easy, to read, I HIGHLY recommend this book.

Philip Tecau

Oakland, California

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Plain-spoken but involving memoir of a gay athlete, January 2, 2007

By 

klavierspiel "klavierspiel" (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Inside Out: Straight Talk from a Gay Jock (Hardcover)

Decades after Dave Kopay's ground-breaking autobiography, there still are very few elite athletes who have been willing to come out of the closet. Therefore, Mark Tewksbury's memoir gains an automatic interest. Tewksbury, a 1992 Olympic gold medalist in the backstroke (he upset favored American Jeff Rouse), does not focus a great deal in "Inside Out" on this triumph, at least in part because he has already penned a book on that topic, but mostly because he wants to focus on what he views as more essential subjects. He talks of his family and his generally unhappy childhood, his early same-sex crushes, his fear of exposure both before and especially after his rise to the highest rank of his sport, all to frequently moving effect. His accounts of his foray within the international Olympic movement, and later involvement with the nascent Gay Games, offer fascinating glimpses into the politics and intrigue of big-time sports.

All this may seem like a lot to stuff into a relatively short book, and in fact, it is. Tewksbury, who on the evidence is a decent writer, spends so much time recounting events that there is not much time for atmosphere or reflection, though one might take this as an accurate conveyance of what frequently seems to be a frantic, fast-paced life. When he does pause to talk about his emotions his plain style is genuinely touching, as in his account of his father's death from cancer. Though one may wonder just how hard a skilled athlete with a strapping physique and dazzling smile (evident in many of the photos, though the beefcake element is kept low-key), not to mention a gift for public speaking, could possibly have it, Tewksbury's willingness to reveal his inner anguish and vulnerability cannot fail to touch the reader. Until such time as the world of sport comes to terms with the sexual orientation of some of its greatest representatives books such as "Inside Out" will be necessary.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Straight Up and Out Talk, May 29, 2006

By 

Chad Sosna "Doo-Lang Love" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Out: Straight Talk from a Gay Jock (Hardcover)

Mark Tewksbury is an inspiring person and a well-admired athlete of the Olympics. I'll be honest and say I was approaching this book from a shallow viewpoint. Though he was a swimmer, not a diver, it seemed like his "coming out" story would just be a pale comparison to that of Greg Louganis.

This is not the case, however, as Mark's story is told with an elegance and difference that makes it stand alone. Do not expect high dramatics or shocking revelations, but there are well-learned lessons here and simply an amazing personal journey. It reminds us that each gay person's evolution is a unique story. What I most appreciated was that he dared to come forth with his relationship as part of a three-way couple, a theme that's unusual even in gay autobiographies.

We've had the stories of Louganis, Billy Bean, and others, and this one joins the chorus in helping us recognize the special challenges that face the gay athlete in the coming-to-realize and coming-out processes.