TEWKSBURY FOUGHT MARIJUANA ADDICTION

Former Olympic swimming 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.

Marijuana was his drug of choice. ``Not that I didn't try others,'' he said
with a laugh.

In a news 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 Calgary-born Tewksbury was a member of the University of Calgary swim
team. He 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. He
has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

His success in Barcelona lifted a country still feeling Ben Johnson's drug
hangover of Seoul. Canadians endured four days of medal drought at the '92
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. ``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.