Mark Andrew Foster (born 12 May 1970) is an English former competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and world championships, and swam for England in the Commonwealth Games. Foster is a former world champion and won multiple medals in international competition during his long career. He competed primarily in

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

and freestyle at 50 metres. Foster is a specialist short-course (25 metre pool) swimmer. In terms of medals and longevity (1986–2008), he is amongst the most successful British swimmers of all time. He was the fastest swimmer in the country by age 15. He made a comeback at the national championships in July 2007 winning both events he competed in after barely training.
He achieved the fifth best time in 2007 in the world at 50 metres freestyle and retired for the second time after the 2008 Olympics. He has six World Swimming Championships, World Championship titles, two

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

titles and eleven European titles to his name.

Early career

Foster was born in

Billericay Billericay ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Basildon, Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin and constitutes a commuter town east of Central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces. It is ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, and was first taught by Ann Hardcastle, the mother of

Sarah Hardcastle Sarah Lucy Hardcastle (born 9 April 1969), also known by her married name Sarah Thomas, is a British former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics, world championships and European championships, and swam for England ...

, at a pool in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

. He was the fastest swimmer in the country by age 15. Foster was educated at Alleyn Court Preparatory School in

Westcliff on Sea Westcliff-on-Sea (often abbreviated to Westcliff) is an inner city area of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is on the north shore of the lower Thames Estuary, about 34 m ...

Millfield School Millfield is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located in Street, Somerset, England. It was founded in 1935. Millfield is a registered charity and is the largest co-educational boarding scho ...

Kelly College Kelly College was a coeducational independent school in the English public school tradition situated in the outskirts of Tavistock, Devon, with around 350 students ranging from ages 3 to 18. There was an associated preparatory school for pri ...

and

Southend High School for Boys (To the determined, nothing is difficult) , established = 1895 (founded), 1939 (moved to current premises) , closed = , type = Grammar school , religious_affiliation = Anglican , president ...

where he excelled in athletics, football and tennis..

National Championships

Foster dominated the short distances in the National Championships winning the 50 metres freestyle title 14 times from 1986 until 2004 and the 50 metres butterfly title ten times from 1992 until 2002.

International career

First selected for the British team in 1985, Foster's breakthrough came in 1990 when he won his first individual international medal - bronze - in the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. He finished the 50 metres freestyle with a time of 23.16 seconds. He had previously won bronze as part of the 100 metre freestyle relay in the

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

games four years previous, but cites the 1990 medal as his first great sporting moment. Success followed rapidly and in the next few years, Foster broke the World Short Course freestyle record four times, the World Short Course butterfly record twice, and set the World Long Course butterfly record (in 1996) with a time of 24.07 seconds. Foster trained at

The Race Club The Race Club is a swimming club known for training Olympic Games swimmers with its swimming training program that is focused on specific swimming techniques, located in Islamorada, Florida. History The Race Club was founded in 2003 by Gary Ha ...

, a Florida swim camp founded by Olympic Swimmers

Gary Hall, Jr. Gary Wayne Hall Jr. (born September 26, 1974) is an American former competition swimmer who represented the United States at the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympics and won ten Olympic medals (five gold, three silver, two bronze). He is a former wor ...

and his father, Gary Hall, Sr. The Race Club, originally known as "The World Team," was designed to serve as a training group for elite swimmers across the world in preparation for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. To be able to train with the Race Club, one must either have been ranked in the top 20 in the world the past 3 calendar years or top 3 in their nation in the past year. The Race Club included such well known swimmers as Foster,

Roland Mark Schoeman Roland Mark Schoeman OIS (born 4 July 1980) is a South African American swimmer and was a member of the South African swimming team at the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. In May 2022, he officially became United States citizen. Ca ...

Ryk Neethling Ryk Neethling OIS (born 17 November 1977) is a South African businessman who rose to prominence as the three-times World Champion and four-times World Record Breaking Olympic swimming champion. He is known as one of the most accomplished swim ...

, and

Therese Alshammar Malin Therese Alshammar (born 26 August 1977) is a Swedish swimmer who has won three Olympic medals, 25 World Championship medals, and 43 European Championship medals. She is a specialist in short distances races in freestyle and butterfly. She ...

. Despite success at Commonwealth, European and World championship level mostly at short courses,

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

titles eluded him and he has never won a medal. In 2004, Foster faced the disappointment of not being selected for the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. At the British Olympic Trials, he won the 50 free in 22.49 seconds, well under the Olympic qualifying standard but seven hundredths of a second below the standard National Team Director Bill Sweetenham had set for inclusion in the British Olympic Team. Foster has openly criticised Sweetenham's management style and Sweetenham ensured that he was not selected. Nonetheless, Foster responded to his omission from the Olympic squad with a gold medal in the World Short Course Championships in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

later that year. In the 50 metre freestyle, he achieved 21.58 seconds, ahead of Stefan Nystrand of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. Although Foster announced his retirement from swimming after the European short course championships in April 2006 at the age of 35, he still occasionally competed that year at invitational meets. Mark Foster, October 2008

Foster returned from "retirement" in 2007 with an aim to win an Olympic medal at the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

. Returning to the British squad he won a silver medal in the 50 m freestyle at the

2008 FINA Short Course World Championships The 9th FINA Swimming World Championships (25 m) were held at the Manchester Arena, in Manchester, England, Manchester, United Kingdom 9–13 April 2008. The United States topped the medal table with 10 gold medals, though host team Great Brita ...

, and qualified to represent Great Britain at the same distance in the Olympics. At the opening ceremony on 8 August, he carried the flag for Great Britain during the Parade of Nations. He failed to qualify for the men's 50 m freestyle semi-finals, finishing almost two-tenths of a second outside the top 16.

Charity work

In May 2009, Foster became patron o
The Anaphylaxis Campaign
the UK charity for people with severe allergies. He won £10,000 for the campaign by participating in

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and ...

, broadcast on ITV on 8 September 2009. In 1999, Foster's friend, Scottish athlete

Ross Baillie Ross Baillie (26 September 1977 – 18 June 1999) was a Scottish track and field athlete, older brother of Commonwealth Silver medal winner Chris Baillie. Both his parents were also track and field athletes, father Hugh representing Great Brit ...

died from anaphylaxis shortly after the pair had gone out for lunch. In October 2008, Foster was a celebrity judge for the Miele Fashion Prize, in aid of children's medical charity
Sparks
In June 2009, Foster supported ActionAid'
PoverTee Day
by having a T-shirt painted on his torso. Foster is also an ambassador for the UK charity SportsAid, which supported him in the early days of his career, helping talented young sports people to achieve their ambitions.

Media appearances

In 2000 he made a guest appearance on the first series of ''

Techno Games Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

''. On 4 April 2008, Foster appeared on the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

show '' Beat the Star'' in which he won 18-3, appearing as the 'star'. On 20 May 2008, he appeared as a guest home owner on the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

show ''

Through the Keyhole ''Through the Keyhole'' is a British comedy panel game show created by the TV producer Kevin Sim and originally presented by Sir David Frost in the studio and Loyd Grossman on location. The location presenter goes around celebrities' houses and ...

''. In the Summer of 2008, he appeared on the new series of '' Superstars'' on Channel 5. In December 2008, Foster appeared on a ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...

'' special of ''

The Weakest Link ''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which The Weakest Link (British game show), first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host ...

'' in December 2008, beating

Anton du Beke Anthony Paul Beke (born 20 July 1966), known professionally as Anton Du Beke (), is a British ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dancer, and television presenter, best known for being a professional dancer and later a judge on the BBC One cele ...

in the final round. He had previously appeared on an Olympic special, but did not win. On 12 February 2009, Foster co-presented ''

BBC Look East ''BBC Look East'' is the name of two separate BBC regional television news programmes for the East of England made by BBC East. History The first BBC television news bulletins for the East of England began on 5 October 1959. These bulletins ...

s 6.30 pm bulletin, with Susie Fowler-Watt. Foster was a contestant on the BBC One programme ''

Let's Dance for Sport Relief ''Let's Sing and Dance'', formerly known as ''Let's Dance'', is a British television programme shown on BBC One, featuring celebrities performing famous dance routines to raise money for the charities Comic Relief and Sport Relief. The programme ...

'' as a member of the dance group 'The Olympians'. Foster regularly appears on BBC TV regional news and local radio in his role of Ambassador of Pools 4 Schools, a programme run by Total Swimming with the

Amateur Swimming Association Swim England is the national governing body for swimming, diving, water polo, open water swimming, and synchronised swimming in England. It forms part of British Swimming, a federation of the national governing bodies of England, Scotland ( Scott ...

to increase participation in swimming amongst primary school children. Foster appears in advertisements for Wellman nutritional products. On 23 March 2012, Foster made a guest appearance on

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

's ''

Celebrity Juice ''Celebrity Juice'' is a British television comedy panel game on ITV2, broadcast since 24 September 2008. The show is written and presented by Leigh Francis in the role of his alter ego Keith Lemon, and its current team captains Laura Whitmore ...

''. On 27 July 2012, Foster appeared on a Paralympic special of the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

game show ''

The Million Pound Drop ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' with ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' presenter

Rachel Riley Rachel Annabelle Riley (born 11 January 1986) is a British television presenter. She co-presents the Channel 4 daytime puzzle show ''Countdown'' and its comedy spin-off ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown''. She is a mathematics graduate. Her te ...

. Foster often appears as an analyst for BBC Sport's coverage of Swim meets.

''Strictly Come Dancing''

Foster competed in the sixth series of ''

'' with professional dancer

Hayley Holt Hayley Doreen Holt (born 3 July 1980) is a New Zealand television presenter and former snowboarder and ballroom dancer, who presents sports news on 1 News At 6pm. She co-presented TVNZ ''Breakfast'' from 2018 to 2020 alongside Jack Tame and l ...

. He was voted off by the judges in the dance-off on week 6. He participated in the ''Strictly Come Dancing'' arena tour in 2012, dancing with

Natalie Lowe Natalie Lowe (born 15 August 1980) is an Australian ballroom dancer. She is a four-time Australian ballroom dance champion. Lowe competed on, and won, Australia's ''Dancing with the Stars'' with celebrity partner Anthony Koutoufides''.'' She l ...

Personal bests and records held

; Long course (50 m) ; Short course (25 m)

Personal life

In 2002 Foster lived in Bath, UK, sharing a flat with former 110m hurdles Olympic silver medallist and World champion athlete

Colin Jackson Colin Ray Jackson, (born 18 February 1967) is a Welsh former sprint and hurdling athlete who specialised in the 110 metres hurdles. During a career in which he represented Great Britain and Wales, he won an Olympic silver medal, became wor ...

. In November 2017, Foster came out as gay.

References

External links

* *
British Swimming athlete profile

British Olympic Association athlete profile

Mark Foster's swimming masterclass (BBC)

British Swimming results and rankings database entry

The Anaphylaxis Campaign

The Race Club

Interview with Mark Foster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Mark 1970 births Living people Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England British male swimmers English male swimmers British male freestyle swimmers Male butterfly swimmers World record setters in swimming People educated at Millfield Olympic swimmers of Great Britain People from Billericay Sportspeople from Southend-on-Sea Gay sportsmen LGBT sportspeople from England Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Swimmers at the 1990 Commonwealth Games Swimmers at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Swimmers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Swimmers at the 2002 Commonwealth Games People educated at Alleyn Court School People educated at Southend High School for Boys World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming Team Bath swimmers LGBT swimmers LGBT sportspeople from the United Kingdom