Athletics at the 1998 South American Games

Athletics events at the 1998 South American Games were held at the Coliseo Mayor de Deportes Jefferson Pérez next to the Estadio Alejandro Serrano Aguilar in Cuenca, Ecuador, between October 26–30, 1998. A total of 45 events were contested, 24 by men and 21 by women. Brazil and Venezuela did not participate in the athletics events.

For the first time, a minimum participation of 4 nations per event was required to award a full set of medals. Men's triple jump and women's 4 x 400 m relay events were concerned, where athletes coming in third did not get bronze medals. Women's marathon was completely cancelled, because there would have been only athletes from host country Ecuador.

Medal summary
Medal winners were published in a book by written Argentinian journalist Ernesto Rodríguez III with support of the Argentine Olympic Committee (Spanish: Comité Olímpico Argentino) under the auspices of the Ministry of Education (Spanish: Ministerio de Educación de la Nación) in collaboration with the Office of Sports (Spanish: Secretaría de Deporte de la Nación). Eduardo Biscayart supplied the list of winners and their results. Further results were published elsewhere,      or can be found in athlete's IAAF biographies.

All results are marked as "affected by altitude" (A), because the stadium in Cuenca is situated 2536 m above sea level.