Belle Moore
Scottish swimmer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
Moore in 1914 | |||||||||||||||
| 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
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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 at an 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]
