Kenneth Moore

Kenneth Strath Moore (February 17, 1910 – December 8, 1981) was a Canadian ice hockey player who competed in the 1932 Winter Olympics, winning gold. He was the first First Nations athlete to win an Olympic Gold Medal at the Winter Olympics.

Biography Moore was born in Balcarres, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1910 to James Linklater Moore and Edith Gibson. He was a citizen of the Peepeekisis Cree Nation. His two older brothers were taken from the family and forced to attend the Brandon Indian Residential School, over 330km away from their home. His eldest brother Oliver died in a sanatorium after falling ill at the school, and his brother Chester died there. Moore's family moved to Regina to prevent their other children from being taken to a residential school.

Moore played hockey, baseball, lacrosse, rugby, basketball, speed skating, and cycling, but loved hockey the most. Playing for the Regina Junior Hockey Association, he was awarded the Eilers' Medal for the player who demonstrated the best sportsmanship.

Moore married Edith Mae McDougall. They had a daughter, two granddaughters, and a great-grandson. He died at age 71 in Winnipeg and is buried at Elmwood Cemetery. In 2015, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame inducted Shirley and Sharon Firth, claiming that they were the first Indigenous athletes to represent Canada at the Winter Olympics. Rattray contacted the Hall of Fame, and they specified that the sisters were the first Inuit athletes to hold the honor -- but they were actually Dinjii Zhuh.

Moore was inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame in 2024. He also featured in a 2018 museum exhibit at the Manitoba Museum. He is recognized in both the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, and British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame.