As a coach he led three athletes to Winter Olympics medals: Thomas Lamparter, Martin Annen, and Gregor Stähli.
A recreational drug user in his youth, he travelled widely in his early twenties and converted to Scientology after visiting one of their academies in Sacramento, California.
[4] He made his global debut at the 1985 IAAF World Indoor Games and was a semi-finalist after having set a personal best of 6.66 seconds in the first round.
The highlights of his 1986 season were a 60 m lifetime best and Swiss record of 6.61 seconds and a semi-final placing in the event at the 1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
[1] Burkart missed the opportunity to run at the 1988 Seoul Olympics due to an injury,[1] but rebounded with a personal best of 10.39 seconds in 1989.
[6] After that season he largely retired from athletics, but made further appearances at the Swiss Indoor Championships, competing in 1999 and finally in 2002.
[9] Burkart was approached by Swiss bobsledder Christian Meili and sprinter-turned-bobsledder René Mangold in 1995 and they urged him to try out the winter sport.
[1] Burkart soon began to focus on training younger bobsledders and athletes in the late 1990s with Fredi Steinmann.