Tensions caused by the Russo–Japanese War and difficulties in traveling to St. Louis resulted in very few top-class athletes from outside the United States and Canada taking part in the 1904 Games.

Chicago, Illinois, initially won the bid to host the 1904 Summer Olympics,[3] but the organizers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis opposed the scheduling of another international event for the same time frame in a different city, perceiving such a prospect as a competitive threat that would divert potential attendees and the revenues that they would bring.

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition's organizers responded by developing plans for including large-scale international sports activities in their own event, informing the Chicago OCOG[clarification needed] that unless the Olympics were moved to St. Louis, such that persons interested in both events could attend each, the Louisiana Purchase Expedition's organizers would conduct and publicize competitions on a scale eclipsing that of the Olympics, retaining and attracting enough attendees and revenues that the Olympics' hosts and backers would not recoup their investment.

Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic movement, then intervened and awarded the Games to St. Louis.

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.

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.

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.

Contests included "baseball throwing, shot put, running, broad jumping, weight lifting, pole climbing, and tugs-of-war before a crowd of approximately ten thousand".

The venues included Glen Echo Country Club, the first golf course constructed west of the Mississippi River, which had opened in 1901.

[30] Due to the difficulty of getting to St. Louis in 1904, and European tensions caused by the Russo-Japanese War, only 69–74 athletes from outside North America participated in the Olympics.

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.