Raymond Gray Lewis, CM (October 8, 1910 – November 15, 2003) was a Canadian

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athlete, and the first Canadian-born

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medalist. The descendant of

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slaves, he was born and died in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a Canada 2016 Census, population of 569,353, and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington, ...

. Lewis was

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d ''Rapid Ray'' for his speed on the track. He excelled in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metre distances in high school and captured seventeen national high school championships (including a record four in one day) while a student at Hamilton's Central Collegiate. Lewis briefly attended Milwaukee's

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on a scholarship, but returned to Canada after only a semester. He found a position on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as a porter during the Great Depression, a job he would hold for 22 years. Lewis continued training – often running alongside the CPR train tracks during stopovers on the

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– and won a bronze medal as part of the 4x400 metre relay team at the 1932 Summer Olympics in

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. In the 400 metre event he was eliminated in the quarter-finals. Two years later he won a silver medal in the mile relay (4×440 yards) at the British Empire Games (later the Commonwealth Games). In the 440 yards competition he was eliminated in the semi-finals. Narrowly missing the cut for Canada's 1936 Olympic team, he ran for two more years before retiring after a bout of pain from shin splints (shin splints had caused Lewis problems in the latter portion of his running career). He received greater recognition later in his life, including the

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in 2001. In 2002, Canadian author John Cooper wrote his biography, ''Rapid Ray: The Story of Ray Lewis''. The children's book chronicled his youth in Hamilton, as well as his training for the Olympics. A

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school named in his honour, Ray Lewis Elementary, opened in 2005 and was occasionally visited by his widow Vivienne.

References

Other sources

sports-reference.com
* * ''Rapid Ray's Triumph,'' by John Cooper, Maclean's Magazine, December 27, 2004 edition, page 88.
Obituary from CBC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Ray 1910 births 2003 deaths Canadian male sprinters Black Canadian track and field athletes Canadian people of African-American descent Olympic track and field athletes of Canada Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Canada Athletes (track and field) at the 1934 British Empire Games Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Canada Members of the Order of Canada Athletes from Hamilton, Ontario Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Medallists at the 1934 British Empire Games