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Inside Out: Straight Talk from a Gay Jock | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Tewksbury
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $31.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 335060
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 262
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0470837357
Dewey Decimal Number: 797.21092
EAN: 9780470837351
ASIN: 0470837357
Publication Date: April 14, 2006
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Product Description
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 Sao 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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Needs a bit of work December 26, 2007
The book starts out smoothly but as the chapters progress the bio/story line becomes a bit fragmented and choppy. Towards the end it seems more like a gossipy he-said she-said tabloid style pitch than a fact-based level headed story. He did reveal some very interesting info about the entrenched Olympic game culture and the extent of homophobia found in that industry and nationwide. Overall: Amusing at times, but the author (Mark Tewksbury) seems a bit flighty and indecisive, and is not the stalwart masculine rock of a man that I was hoping to read about.
 Amazing Transformation June 9, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The cover photos on Mark Tewksbury's autobiographical Inside Out: Straight Talk From a Gay Jock are incredibly masculine. The handsome face on the front, the sexy, virile body on the back, the flexed arm holding a fistful of Olympic medals. So it's quite a shock to discover that as a boy, Tewksbury loved to dress up in his grandmother's clothes, and that, like so many of us, he was teased and taunted as a fag in high schoo.
How does a man make such a transformation? Tewksbury eloquently sums up his ability to win Olympic gold in the 1992 Olympics this way: "I gazed around the room slowly. The best swimmers from Russia, Cuba, the United States, Spain, Germany and France were in front of me. And I was different. I was the fag. And in that moment I owned my truth completely. I thought, `If these guys knew how hard it was for me to get here, they wouldn't believe it. They have no bloody clue what I have been through. Or how strong I am.'"
Those sentiments enabled him to succeed. "I went out and swam, dropping more than 1.2 seconds from my personal best... to win the first gold medal for Canada in Barcelona."
The book is an interesting mix of evasiveness and the titular "straight talk." Tewksbury is open about his long-term relationship with a gay couple, as well as his pursuit of a paid escort. There's a lot that remains unsaid, though he's frank about the depression that struck after his Olympic win, closely tied to his own internalized homophobia.
The biggest accomplishment of this book is its ability to present Mark Tewksbury as a real person--not just a sexy hunk or an Olympic idol. Though he's not yet forty, he (and his country) have come a long way since he won that gold medal.
Neil Plakcy, author of Mahu Surfer: A Hawaiian Mystery (An Alyson Mystery)
Plain-spoken but involving memoir of a gay athlete January 3, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
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.
Good Book but why not do one on someone that came out before they were big August 21, 2006
7 out of 15 found this review helpful
This was a really good book. I really enjoyed the part about Mark's experience with being on the various committees and his speaking career. It was interesting to read something about an athlete who talked about other things he did besides just performing the sport itself.
I wish an athlete would write a book that came out before or during his participation in the sport instead of after. While I still have a lot of respect for people like Mark who come out, they have already won the medals and made their cash, so they really aren't risking their careers any longer.
new low for the Olympics, Gay Games & OutGames June 16, 2006
11 out of 17 found this review helpful
Mark did a fairly good job in destroying any respect I had for the people responsible for putting together the Olympics, GayGames and the newly formed OutGames. His story was quite interesting and for the most part well written. I don't know if it was his intention but I agonized over all the frustrating in-fighting at Olympics/Gay Games/OutGames that was depicted in graphic detail. I was saddened that our gay brothers and sisters could not come together and cause one games series for us. Mark did a great job making me feel the pain we all go through with the anti-gay bigotry. I also enjoyed the way he showed the upward progression of acceptance from the time he was a teen to his 30s. I applaud Mark for this contribution and recommend the book.
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