| Belle Moore | |
| Fullname: | Isabella McAlpine Moore |
| Nicknames: | "Belle" |
| National Team: | Great Britain |
| Strokes: | Freestyle |
| Club: | Premier Club |
| Birth Date: | 23 October 1894 |
| Birth Place: | Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Death Place: | Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
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]