A 1902 law graduate and track team captain for Syracuse University, after college he became a New York real estate lawyer and businessman while living in Jamaica Plains, Queens.

[4] His parents, Jacob and Julia Prinstein (born Jankiel Prinsztejn and Judes Rubinsztejn),[5] emigrated to New York City.

In 1883, when Myer was five, the family moved to Syracuse and resided at 724 Orange Street, currently McBride St., in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of the 7th Ward, on the East side of downtown.

[1] After graduating college, he moved to Jamaica, Queens, New York to practice law, where he was a member and competitor for the highly accomplished Irish American Athletic Club.

[6] In 1908 he married Henrietta Northshield, who had been a New York City school teacher, and they had a son, Elsner, known as Eddie, born in June 1916.

A versatile track and field athlete, besides specializing in the long and triple jumps, he ran sprints and relays, pole-vaulted, hurdled, and high-jumped during collegiate competition at Syracuse.

[8][1] Prinstein won the silver medal in the long jump at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, losing to Alvin Kraenzlein after being denied permission by Syracuse officials to compete in the final because it was contested on a Sunday – despite the fact that Prinstein was a Jew, and Kraenzlein, who was a Christian, did compete.

[13] Malcolm Ford, a sportswriter who had once been a long-jumper, wrote in the New York Mail and Express, "The great feature of his (Prinstein's) jumping is the rise which he gets after leaving takeoff...He has an unusually pretty style and impresses one that he always knows what he is doing.

[15] On February 10, 1911, Prinstein was officially disbarred for a period by the Appellate division of the Supreme Court as a result of fraud in connection with a $200 payment he was given by a client to close a real estate transaction.

After his temporary disbarment ended in the summer of 1911, Prinstein may have continued to practice law or as a Syracuse University website claims, he focused more on his businesses.