Swimmer Mark Tewksbury won a gold medal for his native Canada at the 1992 Olympics—he set a world record in the 100—meter backstroke on his way to the gold. In December of 1998, he came out as a gay man. The March Genre magazine swimsuit issue features Mark on the cover, and inside he discusses the terror he felt hiding his sexuality as a youth. His partner of two—and—one—half years, Benjamin Kiss, was the one who persuaded him to come out. “Benjamin wouldn’t let me lie,” he tells Genre. “He made me be totally honest and authentic about everything in my life, which was really difficult. As a gay man I somehow prided myself on this ability to survive in two worlds—to live successfully as an athlete but have this subversive underlife that was my own sanctuary—without realizing how unhealthy I was. It was slowly destroying me because I couldn’t ever be who I was in one singular situation.”