Akiko Thomson

Who is Akiko Thomson?

Gillian Akiko Thomson is a Filipina television host, journalist and retired swimmer. She is the youngest of three children born to a American father, Marshall Thomson, and a Japanese mother from Hiroshima, Hiroko Nakamura. Her older siblings are Julia and Joshua. When she was still quite 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 latter years of the Marcos dictatorship.

Thomson began swimming at the age of six. She started to represent the Philippines in several swimming competitions locally and abroad after becoming a naturalized Filipino citizen through an Act of Congress by the age of 12. Among the tournaments she competed in are the 1987 and 1991 Southeast Asian Games, where she won several gold medals, and the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Thomson graduated with a degree in Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley and then took her masters in Business Administration at the Ateneo de Manila University. After her retirement from competitive swimming, she became a television host and journalist with Probe Productions at ABS-CBN. She is married to Chips Guevara and had a baby in 2011.