Frank Louis Kramer (1880-1958) was an American gold medal cyclist. He won 16 consecutive national championships from 1901 to 1916. He was inducted into the
United States Bicycling Hall of Fame
The United States Bicycling Hall of Fame, located in Davis, California, is a private 501c3 non-profit organization formed to preserve and promote the sport of cycling. The organization was founded in 1986 in Somerville, New Jersey and has inducte ...
in 1988.
Biography
He was born on September 15, 1880 in
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...
.
He won the national championship in 1901 and raced in competitions in Europe in 1905 and 1906.
He won the
UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Men's sprint The UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Men's sprint is the world championship sprint event held annually at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships. Between its inception and 1992, the sprint was separated into two events; one for professi ...
at the
Newark Velodrome
The Newark Velodrome was a bicycle track located on South Orange Avenue in Newark, New Jersey. It measured six laps to the mile, or 293 yards per lap. The track was built in 1907. The Newark Tornadoes of the National Football League also played s ...
in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Alfred Grenda of Australia, won the silver medal and André Perchicot won the bronze medal.
Kramer participated in bicycle racing for 27 years until his retirement on July 25, 1922 at the age of 42, after regarding "...racing as too strenuous for one of his age and expressed the belief that to continue would impair his health in later years". Twenty-three of those years he raced as a professional. Most of his racing was done in the United States of America but he also competed in races in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Denmark.
He died on October 8, 1958 in South Orange, New Jersey. He is buried in Orange's Rosedale Cemetery.