Gregory Burns & The Olympic Games
Painting the
Olympic Flame
Since 1992.
Three Paralympic Games as athlete. Official Artist in Residence at Tokyo 2020. Live murals commissioned by the IOC and the LA28 Organizing Committee. A 5×5ft painting in the permanent IOC Museum collection, Lausanne. The relationship between Gregory Burns and the Games is not a chapter — it is the whole story.
Artist · Paralympian · Olympic Education Commission Member
"There is no other living artist who is a 2× Paralympic Gold Medalist and 3× Olympic Artist. Gregory Burns is that artist — and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles are next."
Olympian Artist-in-Residence · First-Ever Olympic Agora · Tokyo
Six large-format paintings for the Olympic Agora. Tokyo, 2021.
Gregory Burns was selected as one of six Olympian and Paralympian Artists-in-Residence for the first-ever Olympic Agora — a cultural program orchestrated by the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage (OFCH), running from 1 July to 15 August 2021 in Tokyo's historic Nihonbashi district. In tribute to the Japanese noren — the traditional fabric curtains hung in shop and temple entrances — each artist contributed a series of large-format panel works. Gregory's six screens, each measuring 53 inches high by 128 inches wide, were installed in the Mitsukoshi-mae underground passageway at the heart of Tokyo.
The pandemic prevented Gregory from being present in Japan during the Games — but his paintings were there. Alongside the Agora works, he created a separate series of ten Sports Art paintings commemorating the athletes of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, which may be purchased as prints on fine art paper or canvas.
The Olympic Agora · Tokyo 2020 · Gregory Burns' paintings on display to hundreds of thousands of visitors
Athlete's Journey Tokyo · 60×60in · Mixed Media on Canvas · Now in the IOC Museum collection, Lausanne, Switzerland
Thank You Tokyo · IOC Commission
A painting enters the IOC Museum. Permanently.
In 2022, the International Olympic Committee staged the "Thank You Tokyo" event — a global celebration to honor Tokyo and its citizens for hosting the 2020 Games. Gregory was invited to create a live painting during the event: a 5×5ft canvas built in real time, in front of an audience, capturing the energy and legacy of the Games.
The resulting work — Athlete's Journey Tokyo — was accepted into the permanent collection of the IOC Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. It joins a collection that holds the most significant artefacts in the history of world sport.
Gregory completing the LA28 mural live · Hollywood, California · February 2025 · 48×144in
LA28 Olympic Partners Event · Hollywood
A 4×12ft mural. 240 guests. Three hours. Live.
In February 2025, Gregory was invited by the LA28 Organizing Committee to create a live mural at the LA28 Olympic Partners Event in Hollywood, California — one of the most significant gatherings of Olympic sponsors and stakeholders in the lead-up to the 2028 Games.
Over three hours, in front of 240 guests drawn from the world's leading brands and institutions, Gregory painted a 4×12-foot canvas — building the work from scratch, in real time, as the event unfolded around him. The result was, by every measure, a centerpiece of the evening.
The commission is a natural extension of Gregory's work at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Agora — where, as one of six Olympian and Paralympian Artists-in-Residence, he created six large-format noren screen paintings for the Mitsukoshi-mae passageway in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district.
Athlete's Journey · 53×128in · Digital Print · Olympic Agora Series · Tokyo 2020–2021
Los Angeles · The Next Chapter
What comes next.
Gregory is actively exploring how his unique position — as both a two-time Paralympic Gold Medalist and a three-time Olympic commissioned artist — can add genuine value to the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
The possibilities he is pursuing include sports commentary and broadcasting, particularly as a trackside or studio voice for Paralympic swimming, where he brings not just credentials but lived experience that no broadcaster in the world can match. He is also open to large-scale art commissions, live painting activations, Artist in Residence programming, and public art that marks this moment in Olympic history.
For brands, broadcasters, and institutions seeking a collaborator whose connection to the Games is not manufactured — Gregory Burns is that person. Thirty-five years inside elite sport. Three Olympic commissions. Two gold medals. One painter.
The Los Angeles Games arrive in 2028. The conversation starts here.
For Brands, Partners & Organizations
Be part of
the Games.
Gregory's credentials — two Olympic commissions, two Paralympic gold medals, three Games as an athlete — open a rare set of possibilities for brands and organizations who want to connect meaningfully with the Olympic movement. These are not generic sponsorship packages. They are bespoke creative collaborations built around one of sport's most extraordinary stories.