Ray Lewis (sprinter)

Raymond Gray Lewis, CM (October 8, 1910 – November 15, 2003) was a Canadian track and field athlete, and the first Canadian-born black Olympic medalist.

Lewis briefly attended Milwaukee's Marquette University 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 Canadian Prairies – and won a bronze medal as part of the 4x400 metre relay team at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

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