TEWKSBURY ADMITS MARIJUANA ADDICTION

Toronto - Former Olympic swim champion Mark Tewksbury says he was addicted
to marijuana after quitting the sport.

Tewksbury called his marijuana use "a little bit of catalyst from dealing
with the pressures, of obviously feeling like a fraud, a little bit."

"I was this gay guy who was Olympic champion and who wasn't really being
honest about who he was," Tewksbury said in an interview Wednesday. "It was
easy to want to escape.

"Some people do that through shopping, some people do that through
gambling. Some people do it through eating. I did it through smoking
marijuana."

Tewksbury, 33, said he eventually sought help, joining a 12-point program.

"I just realized my whole life was passing me by," he explained. "I still
believe there's a time and a place for everything.

"I think a scotch after a long day of work, if somebody would like to have
that and doesn't have to wake up and have that glass of scotch, then
probably it's OK. But everything in moderation."

Crossing that line, he acknowledged, can be "dangerously easy to do."

"I don't think anybody's immune to it," he said. "But, thankfully, I just
saw there's so much I was missing and I'm just tired of living that way."

Asked if those days were over, he replied: "Absolutely, unquestionably."

The former star swimmer's drug use is highlighted in an interview in this
week's issue of fab, a Canadian gay publication.

"The point of the article is it's a very dangerous world to be part of,"
Tewksbury said, referring to a party lifestyle. "It's very easy to get
caught up in that idea that you need something to be high as opposed to
just being there."

Marijuana was his drug of choice.

"Not that I didn't try others," he said with a laugh.

In a press release detailing the magazine article, fab said Tewksbury was
addicted to ecstasy - which the former swimmer flatly denied in an
interview with The Canadian Press.

The article, however, actually deals mostly with Tewksbury's private life
and his philosophy on life aimed at handling issues in the gay community.

The seven-year-old biweekly magazine (www.fabmagazine.com) is availavble
free in Toronto, Hamilton and London, Ont., and sells on selected newstands
across Canada.

Tewksbury, a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, became a
Canadian hero in 1992 at the Olympics in Barcelona. He won the gold in the
men's 100-metre backstroke in an Olympic record time, defeating the
American world-record holder in the process. The next day he won a bronze
as part of the Canadian 4x100-metre medley relay.

Four years earlier at the Seoul Olympics, he won a silver in the relay.

His success in Barcelona lifted a country still feeling the Ben Johnson's
drug hangover of Seoul. Canadians endured four days of medal drought at the
1992 Games before Montreal judoka Nicholas Gill won bronze. The next day,
Tewksbury climbed to the top of the podium.

He endeared himself even more to Canadians when he burst into tears during
the playing of O Canada.

The tall, photogenic swimmer with the big smile was named Canada's athlete
of the year in 1992, winning the Lionel Conacher Award. A member of
Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, his resume includes three Olympic medals and
seven world records.

Six years later, he went public that he was gay. He did it his own way,
with an interview in The Globe and Mail and appearance on CBC Newsworld
with Pamela Wallin.

"There is nothing negative attached to this," he said at the time. "It is
all positive.

"Being gay shouldn't be an issue but it still is," he added. "There
shouldn't be labels but there still are. Hopefully, 10 years from now this
won't be a story."

Tewksbury has gone on to become an advocate of Olympic reform and
motivational speaker. He has also staged a one-man show and is a
contributor to Canada AM.