Meet Your Olympians: Jason Burnett

Everyone remembers the first time they saw Spiderman, Batman or Superman. The wide-eyed young version of ourselves dreamed that, one day, we would also be able to perform those incredible, death-defying tricks through the air. As we grew older, though, most of us left those high-flying skills to the special effects department of a good movie.

Jason Burnett, of Etobicoke, Ont., never gave up on those dreams to fly through the air like a superhero. The 25-year old Olympian began his career in gymnastics, but quickly discovered his love of the trampoline.

"Back in 2000, Mathieu Turgeon and Karen Cockburn were the first Canadian trampoline athletes to ever compete in the Olympics,” he says. “I was 14 years old at the time – just starting competitive trampoline – and it had a massive influence on me and my career as an athlete."
Burnett’s fearless style has led him to six Canadian Championships, a Silver medal at the 2008 Olympics and a World Record for performing the most difficult routine ever completed.

The Olympic hopeful evokes old-school comic heroes, like a Canadian Spiderman and without the CGI. He twists and flips through the air as confidently as someone with superpowers. Recently, Burnett has taken these skills and put them to work as an aspiring stuntman. He was the stunt-double for Canadian indie-star Michael Cera on the filming of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. When he isn’t training for the Summer Games, Burnett takes his spins and flips to the street, doing parkour.

A broken leg in 2010 hasn’t slowed him down, as he scored the lone Canadian Olympic spot in Men’s Trampoline. Like any superhero, the hopes of a nation rest on his shoulders, but having performed routines with scores over 20.0, Canada has placed its hope in the best possible candidate.

Super or not, Jason Burnett is sure to be a hero at the 2012 Olympic Games.

Check out his 2011 demo reel: