The evening earlier than, Nedoroscik captured hearts with a tough-as-nails pommel horse routine that earned the USA its first males’s gymnastics crew medal since 2008. Nedoroscik took off his thick, black-rimmed glasses for the efficiency, revealing to reporters afterward that his coloboma leads him to depend on really feel, not sight, when he is on the equipment.

Emily pulled up the routine on her cellphone for her son to observe.

“I all the time prefer to share issues with Porter which can be inspirational and uplifting and simply reassuring him, you already know, he’s not totally different ­­on this world.”

“He’s seven,” Emily defined. “Being totally different just isn’t that nice once you’re seven.”

Earlier than she and her household headed out for the day, Emily adopted Stephen on Instagram and despatched him a fast message of assist:

Emily Fox

The household headed out for a day of wandering. They hadn’t seen the Eiffel Tower but, in order that was first on their listing. They observed the TODAY Present crew in motion and, earlier than they knew it, Al Roker was ushering Emily’s household onto the set. Porter and his sister, Brinkley, frolicked proper between Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb for the ultimate section of Tuesday’s present.

Emily Fox

The household had plans to observe Olympic water polo at Paris Aquatic Heart, so it was nearly time to go when an NBC intern talked about that the U.S. males’s gymnastics crew was proper across the nook, making the media rounds after their first crew medal in 16 years. Emily casually remarked that her son has the identical eye situation as one of many gymnasts and, hey, isn’t that cool? The intern disappeared.

Minutes later, she reappeared with Stephen Nedoroscik. He walked proper as much as Porter and bought right down to his degree to match eyes. For the primary time in his life, Porter met one other individual together with his situation.

“Porter mentioned to me, ‘Mother, I actually thought I used to be the one individual with coloboma,’” Emily mentioned.

“I all the time inform him that different folks have it. I’ve confirmed him photos. However, as a child, till you bodily meet another person, you simply suppose you’re the one one.”

Abruptly, the 7-year-old realized he wasn’t totally different. At the least not subsequent to his new good friend, the Olympic hero.

They talked about Porter’s favourite sports activities — he’s into soccer and basketball lately — they usually embraced for pictures. Earlier than Stephen was whisked away for his subsequent look, he left Porter with one message.

“Stephen informed him, ‘Keep in mind, you are able to do something,’” Emily recalled. “‘Don’t ever let [coloboma] maintain you again.’”

That message didn’t take lengthy to sink in. By day’s finish, Porter was itemizing off all of the sports activities he would someday compete in on the world’s largest stage.

“He was saying, ‘Mother, I really feel like I can go to the Olympics now,’” Emily mentioned.

“’I need to be similar to him.’”

Emily Fox