Belle Moore
 Moore shown wearing her medal awards | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Isabella McAlpine Moore | ||||||||||||||
| Nickname | "Belle" | ||||||||||||||
| National team | Great Britain | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 23 October 1894 Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom | ||||||||||||||
| Died | 7 March 1975 (aged 80) Baltimore, Maryland, United States | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||
| Club | Premier Club | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
Isabella "Belle" McAlpine Moore (23 October 1894 – 7 March 1975), later known by her married name Belle Cameron, was a Scottish competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics.[1]
At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, Moore won a gold medal as a member of the first-place British women's team in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay, together with teammates Jennie Fletcher, Annie Speirs and Irene Steer.[2][3] The British women set a new world record in the event of 5:52.8, beating the German and Austrian women's relay teams by a wide margin.[4] Swedish King Gustav V presented Moore and her teammates with their gold medals and Olympic laurels.[5]
Moore was trained as a longer-distance swimmer, but only 100-metre swimming events were available for women at the 1912 Olympics; she was eliminated in the semi-finals of the women's 100-metre freestyle.[2] At 17 years and 226 days old, she remains the youngest British woman to win an Olympic gold medal; she was also the only Scottish woman to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming, until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when Kathleen Dawson also won gold in the mixed 4 x 100 medley relay.[3]
Moore was born the eighth child of nine in her family.[5] She started training in early age and by 17 already worked as a swimming instructor.[3] In 1919, she married George Cameron, a naval architect; together they moved to Maryland, United States, where Moore gave birth to a daughter, Doris, and son, George.[3] She spent the rest of her life in Maryland where she taught swimming to thousands of children.[5] She was posthumously inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Pioneer Swimmer" in 1989.[5]
See also
[edit]- List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
- World record progression 4 × 100 metres freestyle relay
References
[edit]- ^ "Isabella Moore". Olympedia. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
- ^ a b Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Isabella Moore". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
- ^ a b c d Maggie Barry, 'Forgotten Olympic Golden Girl Belle Moore Remembered 100 Years After Landmark Win", Daily Record (29 April 2012). Retrieved 2 June 2015.
- ^ Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Swimming at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Games, Women's 4 × 100 metres Freestyle Relay Archived 8 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
- ^ a b c d "Belle Moore (GBR)". ISHOF.org. International Swimming Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
External links
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