Stephen Schaefer is presented with his award for setting the world record of chest-to-ground burpees in one hour on Saturday in Edmonton (Photo: Twitter / @YEGPA)

By Shaun Penner

Burpee World Record

Schaefer sets world burpee record

Dec 9, 2019 | 7:16 AM

Stephen Schaefer has set a new world record.

The Grande Prairie born and raised man, who is now serving as a police officer in Edmonton, officially completed 949 chest-to-ground burpees in one hour during his record-breaking attempt on Saturday at a gym in Edmonton.

The event was held to raise funds and awareness for Autism Edmonton. Schaefer’s oldest son, Jason, lives with autism.

Schaefer came up 51 burpees short of his original 1,000-burpee goal, but still beat the Guinness World Record for men of 870 burpees, as well as the record for women which is 920.

He had set out a goal of raising $3,000 in advance of his record-breaking attempt. Schaefer’s Canada Helps fundraising page shows that as of Monday morning, over $5,200 had been raised.

Schaefer told EverythingGP last week that he is happy to raise money for Autism Edmonton, which has helped his son. However, also being able to raise awareness of the organization and others who offer similar services was a big goal.

“I think a lot of people don’t know much about it, and they also don’t know what resources are available for the family members, and those with autism themselves. So that’s really the goal here.”