Belle Moore

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
Women's swimming
Representing Great Britain
Olympic Games

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]

References

^ "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.