16 August 2012

10-year-old boy sends his medal to distraught Olympians


A ten-year-old boy's charming and touching gesture has made him famous around the world after he tried to comfort four of his country's failed Olympians.Elijah Porter was distraught when Canada's 4x100m relay team were stripped of their bronze medal following the final in London, a decision which was taken when video replay evidence showed that Jared Connaughton stepped out of his lane during the race.



"Dear Justyn, Gavin, Jarred and Oluseyi,"I'm Elijah Porter. I'm ten and I live in Newfoundland, Canada.

When I heard what happened on Aug. 11, I knew it was wrong. The rules were not right. But, at last, I realized how good you were.

"We're Canadians. We persevere. We create better lives for each other. The cold didn't stop us from living in the North. We didn't lose the War of 1812. We adapt and survive. We earned our freedom.

"Someday if I become a biologist, or if I get rich, and, if I remember, I will donate money to the summer and winter Olympians.

I hope you like the medal!"

What an awesome gesture

11 comments:

  1. Isnt that just fantastic??!!

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  2. That was very sweet of the boy. Does he know what the team thought of the gesture? Hey, I see Australia won some medals, too.

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  3. "Connaughton and his team-mates - Justyn Warner, Gavin Smellie and Oluseyi Smith - were so touched by the gesture that they decided to share it via Twitter, to let the world see Elijah's fabulous gesture of consolation."

    Sure hope that they wrote back to the Elijah

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  4. I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

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  5. excellence...

    i give elijah a gold medal for compassion!

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  6. lol..Heather, I like the part where he says he would send money IF he remembers ....least he is honest ... as IF I would ever let him forget if he made that promise to me hahaha....

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  7. Hi crystalinne.. I thought it was really lovely too...

    The site where I copied it from had heaps of comments . mostly accusing his parents of exploiting him by making him send the letter, (ie knowing it would receive media attention . thats them summising, how would they know? and then there were heaps of really rude comments about the boys Hand Writing for Heaven sake!)

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  8. Dave(id) I just thought it was a real feel good story.

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