Olie Burton Wins Chris Canning Award

Bill Kellick July 07, 2010

Olie Burton (Accokeek, Md.) was named the recipient of the 6^th Annual Chris Canning Award of Excellence on June 30 at the USA Taekwondo Junior Olympic Taekwondo Championships in Orlando, Fla.

The Chris Canning Award of Excellence was adopted in honor and tribute to Christopher James Canning, an accomplished martial artist, who died accidentally in June of 2001, at the age of 15. Chris was an honor student, a star athlete for his school in football, basketball, and baseball, a classical pianist, worked at an animal shelter, and helped the homeless and needy. In just 4 years as a martial artist, he earned his first degree black belt in Taekwondo, was a member of 11 state teams, won over 30 medals at the national and state level including 15 state and 3 national titles, was an AAU All American, member of the U.S. Elite team training at the Olympic Training Center, invited to the U.S. Gold Team training and was a five-time athlete of the week and Illinois' USNTF athlete and student of the year.

The Chris Canning Award of Excellence is presented to the one martial artist who most exhibits what Chris represented and achieved. He or she has excelled academically, has gained national and international acclaim as a martial arts competitor, given back to the community they live in and demonstrated the same personal attributes as the awards namesake.

Burton, 17, will be a senior at Gwynn Park High School in Brandywine, Md. He has maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average in high school and has tutored his peers and younger children in all subjects. As a member of his church, Burton is involved in missionary activities such as feeding the homeless and working with the elderly and handicapped children. He is also a member of his high school’s varsity golf team and has been described by his coaches as being humble.

Within the sport of taekwondo, Burton is a USA Taekwondo All-American and was a member of the 2010 Youth Olympic Games Qualification Team. He is also a two-time member of the USAT Junior National Team. Burton has won gold medals at the Pan American Junior Championships, Dutch Open, U.S. Open and German Open. He was a bronze medalist at the 2008 World Junior Championships and was named Best Male Junior Athlete at the 2009 U.S. Open as well as 2009 USAT Junior Male Athlete of the Year.

The other finalists for this year's award were Haley Kong (Hillsborough, Calif.), Jared Schneider (Sugar Land, Texas), Alexander Yow (Mequon, Wis.) and Nicholas Yow (Mequon, Wis.).