Ottawa Citizen

Jason Burnett is done playing with fire — for now, anyway.

An Olympic gymnast and aspiring stuntman, Burnett sustained major injuries to his right leg two years ago while doing what he describes as “stupid” tricks for a demo reel. At the time he was just getting his feet wet in the business after landing a spot in a SunnyD commercial, followed by his movie debut as a stunt double for Canadian actor Michael Cera (of Superbad fame) in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

“It was a quick clip of me flipping through the air being exploded by a fireball in one of the first fight scenes,” explained Burnett, who won a silver medal in trampoline at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

“I got some lucky breaks and got those little jobs. It paid great, I met some really cool people and I had a lot of fun doing it, so I thought, ‘This is the life for me.’ But obviously the injury came along and changed my plans because I had to prepare for the Olympics. (His stunt career) is completely on the back-burner right now.”

Burnett has fully recovered from his injuries, including a broken fibula, dislodged ankle joint and torn ligaments. He required one major surgery to insert plates and screws in the leg, plus a follow-up procedure to remove two of the screws.

Fortunately, the rehab went well and Burnett is back on track heading into this summer’s Olympic Games in London.

“It was a six-month recovery, so I always sort of imagined that my competitors had a six-month jump on me,” said the 25-year-old Toronto product, who’s in Regina this week for the Viterra Canadian gymnastics championships. “Ever since I came back in January of 2011 I’ve been sort of training to close that gap. It was quite a big setback. It didn’t come at a great time, but it could have come at a worse time as well. I had a really good surgeon and a really good physiotherapist working with me through the whole process. It was handled really well. I had no problems coming back from that injury. I haven’t had any pain from it ever since. It couldn’t have gone any better.”

Having overcome that hurdle, Burnett is now coping with pain in the heel of his left foot caused by plantar fasciitis (an inflammatory condition that’s common in athletes). It may have been caused by compensating for the issues in his right leg, but Burnett has learned to manage the condition and believes — if all continues to go well — that winning his second Olympic medal is a real possibility.