Meyer Prinstein

Meyer Prinstein
Meyer Prinstein (1904)
Full name	Meyer Prinstein
nation	United States
birthday	December 22, 1878
place of birth	Szczuczyn
size	180 cm
Weight	74 kg
date of death	March 10, 1925
Place of death	New York City
Career
discipline	Long jump , triple jump
society	Irish American Athletic Club
Medal table
Olympic games 3 × 1 × 0 × Olympus. Interludes 1 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Paris 1900 Triple jump silver Paris 1900 Long jump gold St. Louis 1904 Triple jump gold St. Louis 1904 Long jump  Olympic Intermediate Games gold Athens 1906 Long jump

Meyer Prinstein , also Myer Prinstein , maiden name Mejer Prinsztejn (born December 22, 1878 in Szczuczyn , Congress Poland , Russian Empire ; died March 10, 1925 in New York City ) was a Polish- American athlete and multiple Olympic champion in the long jump and triple jump .

Career

Prinstein was born in the part of Poland that was occupied by Russia . His Jewish parents emigrated to the United States in 1883 with their nine children, of whom Meyer was the third child, and settled in Syracuse , New York State . Prinstein attended Syracuse University , where he completed a law degree and developed his athletic talent.

As early as 1898, Prinstein jumped 7.235 m, which was the world's best long jumper performance at the time. In April 1900 he improved to 7.50 m, which made him the favorite of the Olympic Games that year.

At the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900 , Prinstein was first after the long jump qualification with 7.18 m. However, the final battle took place on a Sunday. Although as a Jew it would not have bothered him to start on a Christian holiday, he had to forego the finale, as the Methodist University of Syracuse threatened him with de-registration if he started. His compatriot Alvin Kraenzlein , as a Christian, would have had more reason not to start, but entered the final and exceeded Prinstein's qualifying distance by 1 cm, which meant the gold medal. The pre-fight distance was enough for Prinstein to second place. However, he was so upset that he had to be prevented from punching Kraenzlein after the competition. A day later, Prinstein won the gold medal in the triple jump , defeating the 1896 Olympic champion James Connolly . Furthermore, Prinstein registered for the standing vault , but did not take part in the competition.

At the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, he won the long jump and triple jump competition. This makes him the only athlete who won these two competitions at the same Olympic Games. He also proved his versatility with a fifth place in the 60-meter run and the 400-meter run . He also took part in the 100-meter run and came fourth in his preliminary run.

At the Olympic Intermediate Games in Athens in 1906 , he again won the long jump. In the triple jump he only reached tenth place. He also took part in the 100-meter run, but did not appear in the semifinals.

Prinstein was the first Jewish medal winner in athletics. In 1982 he was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame of Jewish Sports ( International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ) and in 2000 also into the Hall of Fame of US Athletics (National Track & Field Hall of Fame) . After his track and field career, Meyer Prinstein became a lawyer . He died prematurely of a heart condition.

(Note: The year of birth and death mentioned here is generally considered to be certain. In some publications, however, the year of birth is also given as 1880 and the year of death 1928.)

Web links

Commons : Myer Prinstein  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• USA Track & Field Hall of Fame entry
• Meyer Prinstein in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Entry in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame