The Glade 4.0

There are acts of kindness and then there are acts that touch the heart of a nation.

Following the heart-wrenching disqualification of Canada’s 4x100 relay team at the Olympics and hearing how the team was denied a bronze medal, 10-year-old Elijah Porter decided to write a letter to his new, crestfallen heroes.

The Newfoundland lad sensed the team of Justyn Warner, Gavin Smellie, Oluseyi Smith and Jared Connaughton needed to know that he had their Canadian backs. And then some.

“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,” wrote Porter in a letter posted by Warner on his Twitter account.

“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.”

He doesn’t stop there. Porter also promises that if he becomes a biologist and gets rich, he’ll donate money to Canada’s Olympians.

And, perhaps to make up for the bronze medal lost when the team was disqualified, Porter included his Timbits soccer medal, with the final line:

“I hope you like the medal!”

“10yr old Elijah Porter (Nfld) knows the 4x100 team are heros, do you?” asked Warner on his Twitter account with a link to an image of the letter and the medal.

Canada’s relay team raced to third place, behind Jamaica and the U.S., but was automatically disqualified when it was ruled that Connaughton, running the third leg, had stepped on the lane line going around the turn of track.

Despite the crushing loss, Connaughton spoke with the media immediately after the ruling and earnestly accepted the blame, winning thousands of fans in the process.

“Yeah, it was my fault,” Connaughton said. “It was a great race. When I looked up on the screen, I saw the replay and I could see that I stepped on the line. It’s pretty unforgivable. I am sad and sorry for my teammates. And it is sad to have happened like this.”