Life After Cycling
Soon to turn 29, Pete seemed to leave cycling competitions behind (at least, his name no longer appeared in newspapers in that context). Late in 1913, he married a young Brooklyn woman; they honeymooned in Bermuda, and settled down in Mineola. Later, he and his wife moved their family to Jamaica, next door to that of Pete's brother William. He frequently returned to Hicksville, either for family visits, or to remain active in the Athletic Club, supporting its activities and coaching athletes in a number of sports. He also advised cyclists, both professional and amateur, on their training.
During World War I, he worked in Washington, D.C. for the War Industries Board, as Assistant Chief of its Fire Prevention Section. Later, he managed the New York office of the Automobile Underwriters Detective Agency.
Pete passed away in 1966, a month before his 83rd birthday. He was buried in Hicksville's Plainlawn Cemetery. Among the others buried in the plot is his brother William.
BillionGraves.com
Researching Jerome Steinert from old news reports has been an interesting exercise. Like today's sports reporters, the newshounds of a century ago were prone to be overly optimistic or pessimistic. As noted earlier, facts sometimes gave way to reporters' gut feelings.
All memories can fade, but some grow with the passage of time. For example, years after one of Hicksville's own went off to the 1912 games, a reporter wrote a retrospective article about local athletes. It mentioned another cyclist, saying he also had been named to the Olympic cycling team, but "as a sub," and had been unable to attend the games for financial reasons. Well... a review of newspapers of the day turns up no reference to the fellow with respect to the Olympic qualifying races. Nor does the official list of the men selected for the team - pending their ability to raise the necessary funds to go to Stockholm - include him. The cyclist may or may not have been good enough to compete at the games, but apparently he did not try to qualify, and he clearly was not named to the team in any way. Such reporting, although perhaps well-intentioned, is mere hype.
Long after his foray to Stockholm, Pete Steinert was a spectator at a professional cycling race in Manhattan. The next day, a newspaper article about the event mentioned him, and it remarked in passing that he was the "greatest American road rider" the U.S. had seen. At first glance, one might be tempted to also dismiss this as sports hype, but I think that the reporter meant what he said.
It is easy to call a perennial champion great, but Steinert was not a perennial champ. Calling him great, and in fact the greatest of all, while knowing that he competed in an Olympics without medalling, is not something that one would do frivolously. It suggests that although Pete Steinert did not win an overwhelming collection of medals, championships, and glory, the reporter saw in him an abundance of character, and the essence of greatness.
One suspects that Steinert soon rebounded from any disappointment which he felt after Stockholm. The Olympics had magnified everything, especially in the eyes of the public, but they were not the proper standard by which to measure his career. The race in Stockholm was a one-off, atypical of the events in which Pete and his peers competed - even the qualifying races were longer than any other American cycling event had ever been. And yet, on July 7th 1912, pedaling non-stop for nearly 200 miles, Pete was able to finish amongst many of the world's best. In American cycling, on tracks and over roads, he had proved himself a fine cyclist, a solid performer, one who did not shy away from tough competition, and one who set records along the way. Pete Steinert was entitled to hold his head high.
***
