The 1947 South American Championships in Athletics were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between 25 April and 3 May.

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Gerardo Bönnhoff  Argentina	11.0	Santiago Ferrando  Peru	11.2	Carlos Isaack  Argentina	11.3
200 metres	Alberto Triulzi  Argentina	22.0	Gerardo Bönnhoff  Argentina	22.3	Alberto Labarthe  Chile	22.4
400 metres	Gustavo Ehlers  Chile	49.0	Antonio Pocovi  Argentina	49.2	Guillermo Avalos  Argentina	49.5
800 metres	Adán Torres  Argentina	1:53.7 CR	Nilo Riveros  Argentina	1:54.3	Alfonso Rozas  Chile	1:54.9
1500 metres	Melchor Palmeiro  Argentina	3:57.8	Nilo Riveros  Argentina	4:00.1	Raúl Inostroza  Chile	4:01.7
3000 metres	Ricardo Bralo  Argentina	8:44.3	Raúl Inostroza  Chile	8:45.0	Delfo Cabrera  Argentina	8:46.9
5000 metres	Raúl Inostroza  Chile	15:07.8	Eusebio Guiñez  Argentina	15:14.0	Sebastião Monteiro  Brazil	15:15.2
10,000 metres	João Oitica  Brazil	33:01.2	Sebastião Monteiro  Brazil	33:17.6	Delfo Cabrera  Argentina	33:19.0
Road race	Armando Sensini  Argentina	1:56:23	Eusebio Guiñez  Argentina	1:57:17	Joaquín da Silva  Brazil	1:59:00
110 metres hurdles	Alberto Triulzi  Argentina	14.7 =CR	Hélio Pereira  Brazil	15.3	Jorge Undurraga  Chile	15.4
400 metres hurdles	Sergio Guzmán  Chile	54.8	Hermenelindo Alberti  Argentina	54.9	Víctor Henríquez  Chile	55.2
4 × 100 metres relay	Argentina Carlos Isaack Alberto Triulzi Gerardo Bönnhoff Adelio Marquez	42.3	Uruguay Mario Fayos López Testa Helio Giordano Walter Pérez	42.9	Brazil Rui Moreira Lima Geraldo da Luz Osmar Bruno Romano Guilherme Puschnik	43.5
4 × 400 metres relay	Argentina Rodolfo Carrera Guillermo Evans Guillermo Avalos Antonio Pocovi	3:16.0 CR	Chile Jaime Hitelman Jorge Ehlers Sergio Guzmán Gustavo Ehlers	3:17.0	Brazil Benedito Ferreira Osmar Bruno Romano Rosalvo Ramos Bernardo Blover	3:19.9
Cross country	Sebastião Monteiro  Brazil	37:28.9	Reinaldo Gorno  Argentina	38:39.0	Manuel Díaz  Chile	38:48.0
High jump	Alfredo Jadresic  Chile	1.91	Francisco Moura  Brazil	1.91	Carlos Altamirano  Chile	1.88
Pole vault	Lúcio de Castro  Brazil	3.90	Federico Horn  Chile	3.80	Sinibaldo Gerbasi  Brazil	3.80
Long jump	Francisco Moura  Brazil	7.10	Guillermo Dyer  Peru	7.08	Enrique Kistenmacher  Argentina	7.07
Triple jump	Geraldo de Oliveira  Brazil	15.16	Carlos Vera  Chile	15.03	Juan Gallo  Chile	14.33
Shot put	Emilio Malchiodi  Argentina	14.30	Nadim Marreis  Brazil	14.05	Julián Llorente  Argentina	13.94
Discus throw	Karsten Brödersen  Chile	45.24	Eduardo Julve  Peru	44.07	Emilio Malchiodi  Argentina	43.92
Hammer throw	Edmundo Zúñiga  Chile	49.07	Juan Fusé  Argentina	47.95	Dário Tavares  Brazil	45.97
Javelin throw	Ricardo Héber  Argentina	59.59	Lúcio de Castro  Brazil	57.37	Efraín Santibáñez  Chile	56.59
Decathlon	Enrique Kistenmacher  Argentina	7011	Eduardo Julve  Peru	6460	Raimundo Rodrigues  Brazil	6328

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Noemí Simonetto  Argentina	12.4 =CR	Anegret Weller  Chile	12.7	Melania Luz  Brazil	12.8
200 metres	Anegret Weller  Chile	26.6	Melania Luz  Brazil	26.6	Adriana Millard  Chile	27.1
80 metres hurdles	Noemí Simonetto  Argentina	11.5 CR	Wanda dos Santos  Brazil	12.1	María Spuhr  Argentina	12.2
4 × 100 metres relay	Argentina Alicia Gómez María Spuhr Nelida Cajide Noemi Simonetto	49.9	Brazil Stella Ardinghi Melania Luz Lucila Pini Helena de Menezes	50.3	Chile Lucy Lake Norma Díaz Adriana Millard Annegret Weller	50.5
High jump	Ilse Barends  Chile	1.60 CR	Noemí Simonetto  Argentina	1.55	Alice Willhöft  Brazil	1.45
Long jump	Noemí Simonetto  Argentina	5.40	Wanda dos Santos  Brazil	5.16	Eliana Gaete  Chile	5.13
Shot put	Ingeborg Mello  Argentina	11.58	Edith Klempau  Chile	11.27	Elma Klempau  Chile	11.11
Discus throw	Ingeborg Mello  Argentina	38.40 CR	Elma Klempau  Chile	36.49	Noemia Assunção  Brazil	34.02
Javelin throw	Gerda Martín  Chile	38.22	Ingeborg Mello  Argentina	36.08	Ursula Holle  Chile	35.87

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Argentina (ARG)	18	11	8	37
2	Chile (CHI)	9	7	14	30
3	Brazil (BRA)	5	9	10	24
4	Peru (PER)	0	4	0	4
5	Uruguay (URU)	0	1	0	1
Totals (5 entries)		32	32	32	96