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The Extraordinary Life of Olympic Sweetheart Akiko Thomson Guevara
Akiko, now a wife and mother of three, is grateful for her many blessings.
by
Yvette Fernandez
Dec 4, 2018
Dec 4, 2018
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Some of Akiko Thomson Guevara’s earliest childhood memories involve climbing trees in the backyard of their family home in Paco, Manila.
“We all had so much energy,” Akiko says of her siblings, Julia and Josh, and herself. “I was a tomboy, definitely not the graceful girly type.”
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Today, in the town of Malabrigo, Batangas, Akiko, now 44, easily scoots up a rock that is at least eight feet high.
We are visiting the century-old Malabrigo Point Lighthouse, also known as Faro de Punta Malabrigo, one of 24 built during the Spanish Colonial period, overlooking Verde Island, Mindoro, and the Verde Island Passage.
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More: Malabrigo Lighthouse: The Story Behind the Philippines' Oldest Working Lighthouse
In 2004, Akiko’s father, Marsh Thomson, fell in love with the lighthouse, and, in an arrangement with the Philippine Coast Guard, the family adopted it, overseeing efforts for its preservation. Marsh built a home for his family right next door, where they spent many happy times gazing at the beautiful lighthouse that was designated a National Historical Landmark in 2006.
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Till this year, the Malabrigo home was also home to the Thomsons' gibbon, Charlie Brown, another part of the Thomson family’s collective memories.
“Our Dad brought Charlie Brown home when I was about five years old. He was a huge part of my childhood,” says Akiko. “He lived in a treehouse, and we would spend afternoons grooming him. I would carry him into the kitchen and he would take a nap. He had really long arms and would reach out and carry our dogs by the tail. I always thought I would be a Jane Goodall because of him.”
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Earlier, Marsh had lived 20 years in Thailand and had gotten used to having gibbons and other animals about the home. He was assigned to the Philippines to head the U.S. Peace Corps, and later, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines.
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Marsh met his wife, Hiroko “on a plane and followed her around the world,” says Akiko of her parents.
Hiroko is a survivor of the atomic bomb. She and her twin sister were infants in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was detonated to end the Second World War. Their home collapsed, and their mother assumed they had been killed. Thankfully, the babies survived.
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“My Mom grew up with starvation, and her love language has always been that of service. Her life has been devoted to taking care of people, especially her family,” says Akiko.
“Mom is nomadic. She paints, gets inspired by nature,” says Akiko. That is how the Japanese Hiroshima survivor and the American Peace Corps bigwig ended up raising their family in the Philippines.
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“We were three very active kids, so our parents got us into everything. Piano, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, ballet, choir. And then there was swimming next door at the Army Navy Club. We all took to the water really easily. Swimming really wipes you out, so that was good for our parents. Swimming consumed all our excess energy,” says Akiko, who started swimming when she was six years old.
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Before long, Akiko was part of the club’s swim team, joining meets against other clubs around Manila. When she was 10, she was invited to join the Philippine National team, and at 12, she went off to Bangkok to join her first age group competition.
“I got my Filipino citizenship by presidential decree overnight. It all happened so fast,” says Akiko. “My sister and brother wanted to be Filipinos
Not long after Bangkok, Akiko was off to her first Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Jakarta in 1987, where she won a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke and a silver in the 200-meter backstroke. A year later, she was off to the Olympics in Seoul.
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“It all kind of just happened. It wasn’t planned. I know my Dad didn’t have it in mind when we first started swimming, really. It was just to get out of the house, to consume our energy,” says Akiko.
In 1990, Akiko and her teammate Eric Buhain were sent to southern California to spend their summer training for the 1991 SEA Games in Manila and the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. The training program went so well, they decided to extend it, and Akiko ended up spending her senior year in high school in the United States.
At the SEA Games in 1991, Akiko won two gold medals (100-meter and 200-meter backstroke) and two silver medals (50-meter and 100-meter freestyle). Eric won five individual gold medals. The two were the toast of the Philippines.
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After the 1992 Olympics, Akiko found her way to the University of California at Berkeley, not too far away from where her sister, Julia, was studying.
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“I majored in Anthropology and minored in Theater. My Mom would say I majored in swimming,” says Akiko, who was co-captain of the university’s swim team in her senior year.
After her final Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, Akiko moved back home to the Philippines. Not long afterward, she met Chips Guevara through her best friend, Len Cabili.
“We were friends for 10 years before we started dating. I must admit I kept him at arms’ length. I had this image of the man I was going to marry, and Chips wasn’t him. I thought I would marry an athlete, someone very tall, like me,” says Akiko, laughing.
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“Chips and I were best friends. We did everything together. Then one day we took a bus ride up north to Palaui. Fifteen hours. And during that trip I decided, ‘what the heck, why not give him a chance.’ So I let my arm down, and that was that. It was so easy, no effort at all. At that point, we were so comfortable with each other.”
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Even Charlie Brown, who had always been jealous of males (he once bit Akiko’s brother Josh on the nose), eventually warmed up to Chips over the years, and Charlie Brown allowed Chips to scratch him on the back.
On one of their first dates together as a couple, Chips the non-athlete joined Akiko the Olympian in
Three years later, Chips and Akiko set their wedding for April 2009 in Maui, Hawaii, a big beautiful celebration with family and friends. That January, however, Marsh passed away very suddenly.
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Almost a decade later, Akiko’s face crumples at the memory.
“We’re a very close family, and we were in shock, devastated. It was a very hard time,” says Akiko. “Growing up, I had different dreams for me and my Dad. One of them was for him to walk me down the aisle. Another was for my Dad to go on a date with my future husband. I’m so glad we were able to do that. About a year before he died, my Dad, Chips, and I spent a day at the Avalon Zoo in Rizal. It was a wonderful day. We visited a carpenter in Antipolo, and then we had dinner at Vieux Chalet. We were all very happy.”
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Chips and Akiko ended up marrying in June later that year, in a much simpler ceremony in upstate New York.
“Next year, we’ll be married ten years. I must admit when I was younger, I’d always had a fear of marriage. I was worried it would be difficult,” says Akiko. “I won’t say my marriage has been without trials, but it hasn’t been as hard as I thought it might be. Chips
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Akiko is currently president of the Philippine Olympians Association. She also runs the Akiko Thomson Swim School, which Chips encouraged her to start back in 2011.
“It wasn’t something I wanted to do in the beginning. I felt there would be a lot of pressure and expectation because I’m an Olympian,” says Akiko. “But Chips felt very strongly about it and said we should do it. It’s been very educational and fulfilling.”
In the past seven years, thousands of children have learned to swim via summer lessons, physical education classes, and after-school activities. The school also has a varsity and competitive program for children and teens of various ages.
“My boys enjoy swimming, they’re very good and comfortable with it, but they’re really more into football, which is perfectly fine with me,” says Akiko of her two precocious boys, Noah, 8, and Elijah, 6. She has yet to teach her spunky daughter, Sachiko, 2, how to swim.
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Amelia Sachiko Antoinette Thomson Guevara was born on a special day, June 13, 2016, Chips and Akiko’s seventh wedding anniversary. June 13 has always been special to Chips because it is the feast of St. Anthony, his patron saint. (Chips’ full name is Samuel Anthony).
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June 13 is also the day in 1926 when Jérôme Jean Louis Marie Lejeune was born. He was a French pediatrician and geneticist best known for discovering that Down Syndrome is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.
Sachiko was born with that extra chromosome; she has Down Syndrome.
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“When I gave birth to Sachiko, something felt different. It was my first Caesarean birth,” says Akiko. “With my boys, I walked to the birthing room, but this time my legs were trembling, so I accepted a wheelchair. I kept praying to God to calm my anxious heart.”
“When I first saw Sachiko, I noticed she looked different. I asked Chips, ‘does she look like she has Down’s?’ And Chips told me the doctors suspected it. We had to wait almost a month before the blood test came back confirming it. The whole waiting period was really hard because we weren’t prepared for any of it. It was the fear of the unknown. I was very worried thinking about what my daughter would be able to do and not do in the future. But God really took care of me. He was watching over us.”
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Akiko says that just two weeks before Sachiko was born, she and Chips had visited good friend Danny Dimalanta, a developmental pediatrician. They went to seek advice on how to work with children with special needs who enrolled in their swim school. That was how they were first made aware of caring for children with Down Syndrome.
Also, before Sachiko was born, Chips and Akiko had invited a good friend, Rocky Chan, to be one of Sachiko’s godparents. Immediately after her birth, Rocky and his wife saw Chips praying and weeping in church. When Chips told them about Sachiko, Rocky immediately linked Chips and Akiko to his aunt who headed the Down Syndrome Association of the Philippines. And just like that, the flailing couple had a support group to ground them.
Akiko’s network continued to grow. When Sachiko was a few weeks old, a good friend put Akiko in touch with Michelle Aventajado, who ran a group called Best Buddies, where typical children spend time with children with Down Syndrome and other special needs. Michelle also does massage and special yoga with infants and young children.
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“I am grateful to have a circle of support,” says Akiko. “I think the hardest part was fear of the unknown. But now as we get to know more and more, it has gotten so much easier.”
Sachiko is a beautiful child radiant with sunshine and joy. She toddles around the room, her bright, mischievous eyes filled with wonder.
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Skirts, FILIP + INNA. PHOTO: JOSEPH PASCUAL
“I see God’s hand in everything, and God gave Sachiko to us for a reason,” Akiko says. “I’m blessed to be with her all the time. I’m blessed that I have an awesome support staff to help me out.”
Sachiko has a full schedule—speech therapy twice a week, occupational therapy, physical therapy, play school.
“She’s a very strong girl. It’s a blessing she has two big brothers who toughen her up. They kick the ball and she kicks the ball. They love her. They smother her with affection,” says Akiko.
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“I don’t think we ever realize what we all have the capability for until our lives are stretched beyond what we have ever imagined,” says Akiko. “Sachiko has opened my eyes to so much more. She has taught my heart to be more tender and fuller than ever before.”
“It’s like an adventure, being with my kids, watching them grow,” she says. “You don’t know what’s in store for all of them. I’m curious to see what Sachiko’s interests will be. She loves music and dancing. Dance is like the purest expression of joy, and Sachiko is pure joy. Do you know what Sachiko means? It means ‘child of bliss.’”
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Photographs by Joseph Pascual
Produced and styled by Paolo Chua, assisted by April Lozada
Makeup by Patrick Alcober for Make Up For Ever
Hair by George Aliben using Aveda
Additional art direction by Sandy Aranas, assisted by Grace
Shot on location at Malabrigo Lighthouse
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