Filipino swimmer
Gillian Akiko Nakamura Thomson-Guevara OLY (born October 8, 1974) is a Filipina television host, journalist and retired swimmer.
She is the most accomplished Filipina swimmer in the Southeast Asian Games having won eight gold medals in the biennial multi-sport meet between 1987 and 1993.
Early life and education
Gillian Akiko Nakamura Thomson[1] was born on October 8, 1974[2] in Washington, D.C. in the United States.[1] The youngest of three children, Akiko was born to a Japanese mother from Hiroshima, Hiroko Nakamura and American father, James Marsh Thomson.[1]
When she was young, she and her family moved to Manila where her father, who had previous experience with the United States Office of Naval Intelligence, became the executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines in the 1970s[1]
Thomson would enter the University of California, Berkeley after she took part in 1992 Summer Olympics. She graduated with a major in anthropology and a minor in theater. She would take her master's degree in Business Administration at the Ateneo de Manila University.[4]
Career
Thomson began swimming at the age of six at the Army Navy Club in Manila where her family had lived nearby. [5] She would become part of the club's swimming team.
Thomson was invited to join the Philippine national team when she was 10 years old. She started to represent the Philippines in several swimming competitions locally and abroad after becoming a naturalized Filipino citizen through Presidential Decree No. 1983 in 1985.[6]
Among the tournaments she competed in are the 1987, 1989, 1991 and 1993 South East Asian Games, where she won eight gold medals in total, and also in three editions of the Summer Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 1996.[2]
She was also co-captain of the California Golden Bears swimming team on her senior year at University of California, Berkeley.
Post-retirement
After her retirement from competitive swimming, she became a television host and journalist with Probe Productions at ABS-CBN.[7]
She opened the Akiko Thomson Swimming School at the Colegio San Agustin in Makati in 2011.[8]
Thomson has served as a commissioner at the Philippine Sports Commission from 2010 to 2016.[9][10] She was elected the president of Philippine Olympians Association in 2015, following the death of Art Macapagal.[11] Motivated by her daughter's condition, she also become involved in Special Olympics Pilipinas as its chairperson and president.[12]
Personal life
Thomson is married to Samuel "Chips" Guevara since June 2009.[10] They have two sons and a daughter who has Down syndrome.[13]
Philippines
