Highlights

Boxing, dumbbells, freestyle wrestling, and the decathlon made their debuts. The swimming events were held in a temporary pond near Skinker and Wydown Boulevards, where "lifesaving demonstrations" of unsinkable lifeboats for ocean liners took place.

One of the most remarkable athletes was the American gymnast George Eyser, who won six medals even though his left leg was made of wood, and Frank Kugler won four medals in freestyle wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war, making him the only competitor to win a medal in three different sports at the same Olympic Games.

A tug of war competition at the 1904 Summer Olympics

Chicago runner James Lightbody won the steeplechase and the 800 m and then set a world record in the 1500 m. Harry Hillman won both the 200 m and 400 m hurdles and also the flat 400 m. Sprinter Archie Hahn was champion in the 60 m, 100 m and 200 m. In this last race, he set an Olympic record in 21.6, a record that stood for 28 years. In the discus, after American Martin Sheridan had thrown exactly the same distance as his compatriot, Ralph Rose (39.28 m), the judges gave them both an extra throw to decide the winner. Sheridan won the decider and claimed the gold medal. Ray Ewry again won all three standing jumps.^[4][5]

The team representing Great Britain was awarded a total of two medals, both won by Irish athletes. The top non-U.S. athlete was Emil Rausch of Germany, who won three swimming events. Zoltán Halmay of Hungary and Charles Daniels of the United States each won two swimming gold medals. Galt Football Club from Canada won the gold medal in football.^[4][5]

Anthropology Days

An Ainu man competing in an archery contest during "Anthropology Days"

The organizers of the World's Fair held "Anthropology Days" on August 12 and 13. Since the 1889 Paris Exposition, human zoos, as a key feature of world's fairs, functioned as demonstrations of anthropological notions of race, progress, and civilization. These goals were followed also at the 1904 World's Fair. Fourteen hundred indigenous people from Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, East Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America and North America were displayed in anthropological exhibits that showed them in their natural habitats. Another 1600 indigenous people displayed their culture in other areas of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (LPE), including on the fairgrounds and at the Model School, where American Indian boarding schools students demonstrated their successful assimilation.^[6] The sporting event itself took place with the participation of about 100 paid indigenous men (no women participated in Anthropology Days, though some, notably the Fort Shaw Indian School girls basketball team, did compete in other athletic events at the LPE). Contests included "baseball throwing, shot put, running, broad jumping, weight lifting, pole climbing, and tugs-of-war before a crowd of approximately ten thousand".^[7] According to theorist Susan Brownell, world's fairs – with their inclusion of human zoos – and the Olympics were a logical fit at this time, as they "were both linked to an underlying cultural logic that gave them a natural affinity".^[8] Also, one of the original intentions of Anthropology Days was to create publicity for the official Olympic events.^[9][10]

New sports

Francis Olympic Field, Washington University in St. Louis, 1904

Boxing made its Olympic debut at the St. Louis Games. The sport has since featured at every Summer Olympics, except for the 1912 Stockholm Games.

While wrestling made a return, it was exclusively the newly-debuted freestyle wrestling as opposed to Greco-Roman style of the 1896 Summer Olympics. Later editions would have both styles of wrestling in their programs.

Demonstration sports

Basketball, hurling, American football and baseball were featured as demonstration sports. Gaelic football was also an unofficial demonstration sport at the 1904 Olympics. There was a demonstration bout of women's boxing.^[12]

Water polo is also mentioned in the games reports for the 1904 Summer Olympics. At the time it was not considered to be a demonstration sport, but, as of 2020, the IOC does not include it in its records.

Disputed

Some sources also list athletes from the following nations as having competed at these Games.

•  Italy (1)^[28]
•  Norway (3)^[29]
• Newfoundland Colony (1)^[30]

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees

IOC	Country	Athletes
USA	United States	526
CAN	Canada	56
GER	Germany	22
GRE	Greece	14
RSA	South Africa	8
GBR	Great Britain	6
HUN	Hungary	4
AUS	Australia	3
CUB	Cuba	3
AUT	Austria	2
SUI	Switzerland	2
FRA	France	1
Total	651

Notes on medalists

The nationalities of some medalists were disputed, as many American athletes were recent immigrants to the United States who had not yet been granted U.S. citizenship. In July 2021, the IOC accepted the recommendations of Olympic historian Bill Mallon, and adjusted their database in regards to the following cases:

• In 2009, historians from the International Society of Olympic Historians discovered that cyclist Frank Bizzoni, believed to be an American, was still an Italian citizen when he competed in 1904: he was granted U.S. citizenship in 1917.^[31]
• Two Norwegian-American wrestlers, Charles Ericksen and Bernhoff Hansen won gold medals. In 2012, Norwegian historians found documentation showing that Ericksen did not receive American citizenship until March 22, 1905, while Hansen probably never received American citizenship. The historians therefore petitioned the IOC to have the athletes registered as Norwegians.^[32][33] In May 2013, it was reported that the Norwegian Olympic Committee had filed a formal application for changing the nationality of the wrestlers in the IOC's medal database.^[34]
• Swimmer and multi-medalist Francis Gailey competed in 1904 as an Australian. He immigrated to America in 1906, sailing to San Francisco in the SS Sonoma, and worked as a banker in California, living for a time in Ontario, Canada, where he married Mary Adams, and finally settled in southern California in 1918, managing orange-grove plantations.^[35]
• Multi-medalist Frank Kugler of Germany, a member of the St. Louis Southwest Turnverein team, was granted U.S. citizenship in 1913.^[36]
• Gustav Tiefenthaler was born in Switzerland, but the family moved to the United States when he was a child: he represented the South Broadway AC in St. Louis. At the Olympics, Tiefenthaler wrestled one bout and lost, but earned a bronze medal.^[37]
• French-American Albert Corey won silver medals in the marathon, and in the team race as part of a mixed team (together with four undisputed Americans).^[38]
• Austrian-American gymnast Julius Lenhart won gold and silver medals in individual events and gold medal in team competition as a part of the mixed team.

The IOC also counted one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals won by the American fencer Albertson Van Zo Post for Cuba instead of the United States: the IOC also showed Charles Tatham as Cuban for individual fencing events and American for the team event, but he was an American.^[39]