Kristan "Kris" A. Burley (born January 29, 1974) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

gymnast, who has represented Canada at 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 ...

, the

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and the

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."Burley headed to local Hall of Fame"
. ''

Truro Daily News The ''Truro News'' is a weekly newspaper in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, covering Colchester County. The paper is currently owned by SaltWire Network, and is sisters with '' The News'' in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia and the ''Cape Breton Post''. See ...

'', October 16, 2013. Originally from Truro, Nova Scotia, he was based in Richmond Hill,

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and

Fredericton Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the do ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

"Burley decides to retire". ''

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'', October 28, 1999. during his competitive career.

Competition

He was a competitive athlete from 1989 to 1999, winning four national championships in gymnastics during his career and representing Canada at the

World Championships in Gymnastics Gymnastics World Championships refers to a number of different world championships for each of the disciplines in competitive gymnastics. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) organizes World Championships for six disciplines: acrobatic g ...

, the Commonwealth Games, the Pan American Games and the Olympics. In his first national championship, he won the junior-level all around with 108.1 points to 101.6 for his nearest competitor."Young gymnast Burley shines at nationals". ''

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'', May 21, 1990. He also qualified for several senior-level events despite being just 16 years old at the time, and won the vault and floor events at that level as well. He won the national senior men's all-around in 1995."Burley, Exaltacion put exclamation points on all-around titles". ''

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'', May 29, 1995.

Commonwealth Games

At the

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in Victoria,

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, Burley won three silver medals as a solo competitor in floor, vault and parallel bars. In the men's team event, he was the last floor performer after teammates Alan Nolet,

Richard Ikeda Richard Ikeda (born 26 November 1974) is a Canadian gymnast. He competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centenni ...

and Travis Romagnoli; in what he would later describe as one of the best performances of his life, he scored 9.55 to secure the gold medal for the Canadian team. At the

1998 Commonwealth Games The 1998 Commonwealth Games ''(Malay: Sukan Komanwel 1998)'', officially known as the XVI Commonwealth Games ''(Malay: Sukan Komanwel ke-16)'', was a multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This edition is marked by several unprecedent ...

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, he won a silver medal in the men's horizontal bar, and a bronze medal in the men's team event.

Pan American Games

Burley won two bronze medals as a solo competitor and one bronze medal with the Canadian team at the

1995 Pan American Games File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

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,"Nova Scotian has slim lead". ''

'', May 25, 1995. and one bronze medal at the

1999 Pan American Games The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games or the 13th Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23 to August 8, 1999, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and surrounding towns and ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

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Olympics

He competed at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

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, Georgia, finishing 69th in the artistic individual all-around."Kris Burley"
''

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'' Olympic Sports Database.

Honours

He was named male athlete of the year by Sport New Brunswick in 1997, and by Gymnastics Canada in 1996 and 1998.

Post-competition

Burley announced his retirement from competition in 1999, and subsequently worked as a television production assistant and served on the board of directors of the Association of Canada's National Team Athletes. He worked with

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Ju ...

for several years as a performer in '' Alegría'' and as assistant artistic director of ''

Dralion ''Dralion'' (pronounced Drah-lee-on) was a touring production by the Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil. The show combined elements of traditional Chinese circus with Western contemporary circus, complementing the "East-meets-West" ...

''. He later worked on the communications and media team for

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's bid to host the

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. Openly gay,"Gay ex-Olympic gymnast Kris Burley remembers the isolation, fear"
''

Outsports ''Outsports'' is a sports news website concerned with LGBT issues and personalities in amateur and professional sports. The company was founded in 1999 by Cyd Zeigler, Jr. and Jim Buzinski. ''The Outsports Revolution'' (Alyson Publications), by ...

'', December 3, 2014. he is also a spokesperson for the Canadian Olympic Committee's program to combat

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitude (psychology), attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, h ...

in sport.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burley, Kris Gymnasts at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Canada Living people 1974 births Sportspeople from Truro, Nova Scotia LGBT gymnasts Canadian gay sportsmen Cirque du Soleil performers Canadian circus performers Canadian male artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Canada Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Canada Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Canada Pan American Games bronze medalists for Canada Commonwealth Games medallists in gymnastics Pan American Games medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 1995 Pan American Games Gymnasts at the 1999 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games Medallists at the 1994 Commonwealth Games 21st-century Canadian LGBT people