Myer Prinstein

Myer Prinstein, born Mejer Prinsztejn on 22 December 1878 in Szczuczyn in Russian-ruled Congress Poland, was a Poland-born American track and field athlete who held the world record for the long jump in 1900 and won four gold medals in three Olympic Games in the long jump and triple jump. His family emigrated to New York and moved to Syracuse in 1883, where he competed for his high school and the local YMCA before captaining the Syracuse University track team and graduating in law in 1902. He competed for the Irish American Athletic Club in Queens and later worked as a New York real estate lawyer and businessman. He set a long jump world record of 7.50 metres at the Penn Relays on 28 April 1900 and won silver in the long jump at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, losing to Alvin Kraenzlein after Syracuse officials refused him permission to compete in a final held on a Sunday. At St. Louis in 1904 he became the only Olympic track athlete to win both the triple jump and the long jump at the same Games, and he won the long jump again at the 1906 Games in Athens. He died on 10 March 1925.