Olympic heroes awarded country's highest honour
Ice dancers Virtue and Moir, swimmer Tewksbury named to Order of Canada
Olympic superstars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are joining a “who's who” list of Canadians granted the nation's highest honour: the Order of Canada.
Virtue and Moir, natives of London and Ilderton, Ont., respectively, were named among 114 recipients of the order on Friday by Governor General Julie Payette.
It sparked an emotional response from Virtue, she wrote on social media Friday.
“I couldn't help but think that as a kid, I would have never known to dream so big,” she wrote. “I am humbled by this honour!”
The pair formed their partnership as children at the Ilderton Skating Club and skated together for two decades. They would go on to become the first North American duo to win Olympic ice dance gold, in 2010 on home ice at Vancouver.
Virtue and Moir rose to international acclaim en route to collecting five Olympic medals in their career and went on to become Canada's
most decorated figure skaters with their stunning performance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. They claimed a second gold medal in the ice dance event, and were also an instrumental part of Canada's gold-winning squad in the team event.
Four years earlier at the Sochi Winter Games, Virtue and Moir were silver medallists in ice dance behind Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White, and were part of Canada's team that also earned silver. They took two seasons away from the sport before returning in 2016 to chase a second Olympic gold medal, which they achieved in Pyeongchang.
Virtue and Moir retired from the sport following a cross-canada tour in the fall of 2019.
Also named to the Order of Canada on Friday was swimming legend Mark Tewksbury. But his athletic pursuits mark only part of his contribution to the country. From his bravery in coming out as gay in 1998 to his role as a mentor and leader within the Canadian Olympic community to his activism on behalf of the LGBTQ community, the Special Olympics and people suffering with their own mental health, Tewksbury's impact goes well beyond the pool, where he won gold in 1992 at the Barcelona Summer Games.
On Friday, Tewksbury was appointed as a companion of the Order of Canada. That's the highest level of the order, and there's a limit of only 165 living companions at one time.
Anastasia Bucsis, a former Olympic speedskater who came out as gay in 2013, can't think of anyone more deserving.
“I mean, it sounds so clichéd and I don't want to say `pioneer,' but truly, his strength and courage to come out in the late '90s has saved lives,” Bucsis said. “Our sporting landscape looks the way it does now because of his actions and leadership.
“It can't be overstated how strong a leader he is. Not just for LGBTQ athletes, but for the entire Olympic team. For anyone who has dreams, Mark just has such a special way of being incredibly strong and impactful with his words and how he holds himself, but also his ability to be vulnerable and humanize issues and put himself out there.”
As an athlete, Tewksbury is arguably the greatest Canadian swimmer ever. He won a silver medal in the 4x100-metre medley relay at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and famously followed that up by winning the gold medal in the 100-metre backstroke four years later in Barcelona.
On its own, that's an incredible athletic legacy.
But it's what he did with the platform that sport provided him in the subsequent years that made Tewksbury such a worthy choice to be a companion of the Order of Canada.
The Calgarian has served on the board and as a chairman for the Special Olympics. He co-founded Olympic Advocates Together Honourably, which was dedicated to restoring the Olympic spirit. He's been a spokesman for the Children's Miracle Network and AIDS Walk Canada.
And since coming out as gay, he has proudly advocated for LGBTQ people while serving as a vital support for young athletes like Bucsis, who are deciding whether to come out publicly, as well.
“It completely humbles me,” Tewksbury said. “My citation reads `For athletic excellence and sport leadership and for championing equity, inclusion and human rights on and off the field of play.'
“I'm absolutely not the only one, but I was early days. I started my activism back in the '90s and it was very difficult to speak openly about being gay in the world, in general, but certainly in sport. I think that over time, those difficult decisions from that time have just been amazing later in life, and I'm so grateful that I did what I did earlier.”
Tewksbury's work is far from over. He hosts a show called In Your Corner on Egale.ca that focuses on inclusion in sport and connecting the LGBTQI2S communities, and continues to run The Great Traits, the company he co-founded.
He's deeply involved in countless causes.
“I think ( my activism is) a broad-reaching activism, but for sure it was started by my own empathy and understanding of what it felt like to be different as a closeted gay person,” Tewksbury said.