| Date | 7 September 1904 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Life Saving Exhibition Lake, Forest Park, St. Louis | |
| Participants | 16 from 1 countries | |
| Format | Final only. | |
Similar to the controversy that occurred in the 1904 water polo event, a German team attempted to enter the freestyle relay. The American teams protested this, stating that the German team was not all from the same club, but in fact constituted an all-star team. The judges upheld the American protest and disqualified the Germans. After the meet was over, some Americans offered to choose their own all-star team and play a single match against Germany, but they refused. Because of this ruling against Germany, there is some justification to not consider this an Olympic event, but it is still recognized by the IOC.
Four teams eventually competed: two from the New York Athletic Club, one from the Chicago Athletic Association, and one from the Missouri Athletic Club. The #1 team from the New York AC won easily.
| Pos | Number | Competitors | NOC | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | – | New York Athletic Club #1 |  USA | 2:04.6 | Gold | ||
| 12 | Joe Ruddy | – | |||||
| 17 | Budd Goodwin | – | |||||
| 16 | Lou Handley | – | |||||
| 11 | Charlie Daniels | – | |||||
| 2 | – | Chicago Athletic Association | USA | – | Silver | ||
| 4 | David Hammond | – | |||||
| 27 | Bill Tuttle | – | |||||
| – | Hugo Goetz | – | |||||
| 5 | Ray Thorne | – | |||||
| 3 | – | Missouri Athletic Club | USA | – | Bronze | ||
| 31 | Amedee Reyburn | – | |||||
| 36 | Gwynne Evans | – | |||||
| 34 | Marquard Schwarz | – | |||||
| 35 | Bill Orthwein | – | |||||
| 4 | – | New York Athletic Club #2 | USA | – | |||
| 40 | Edgar Adams | – | |||||
| 13 | David Bratton | – | |||||
| 15 | George Van Cleaf | – | |||||
| 14 | David Hesser | – | |||||
| – | Germany |  GER | – | ||||
| 55 | Walter Brack DNS | – | |||||
| 56 | Georg Hoffmann DNS | – | |||||
| 10 | Emil Rausch DNS | – | |||||
| 59 | Georg Zacharias DNS | – |
