Jackie Barrett

John Jackie Barrett, born on 25 April 1974, is a Canadian powerlifter. Barrett, who has autism, won thirteen gold medals competing for Canada in the Special Olympics World Summer Games and retired after setting three Special Olympics records at the 2015 World Summer Games in Los Angeles. He is a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, who lives in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, and he was raised in Spryfield, a community in the urban core of Halifax. He was diagnosed with autism, a learning disability and a speech impairment in 1980 and gradually regained his ability to talk at age six.