The 1965 South American Championships in Athletics were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between 8 and 16 May. This was the last edition of the Championships in which Brazil did not top the medal table.

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Iván Moreno  Chile	10.4	Héctor Thomas  Venezuela	10.5	Manuel Planchart  Venezuela	10.7
200 metres	Carlos Baron  Chile	21.6	Hortensio Fucil  Venezuela	21.6	Iván Moreno  Chile	21.9
400 metres	Víctor Maldonado  Venezuela	47.5	Pedro Grajales  Colombia	47.5	Andrés Calonge  Argentina	48.4
800 metres	Leslie Mentor  Venezuela	1:54.5	Jorge Grosser  Chile	1:55.1	José Azevedo  Brazil	1:55.3
1500 metres	Tharso de Andrade  Brazil	3:53.9	Albertino Etchechury  Uruguay	3:54.1	Domingo Amaisón  Argentina	3:54.5
5000 metres	Domingo Amaisón  Argentina	14:46.5	Mario Cutropia  Argentina	14:49.9	Ricardo Vidal  Chile	14:53.8
10,000 metres	Mario Cutropia  Argentina	31:39.1	Domingo Amaisón  Argentina	32:01.0	Ricardo Vidal  Chile	32:11.0
Marathon	Ricardo Vidal  Chile	2:38:15 CR	Dorival Silva  Brazil	2:38:23	Domingo Amaisón  Argentina	2:40:13
3000 metres steeplechase	Domingo Amaisón  Argentina	9:03.0 CR	Albertino Etchechury  Uruguay	9:07.5	Sebastião Mendes  Brazil	9:22.2
110 metres hurdles	Carlos Mossa  Brazil	15.2	Guillermo Vallanía  Argentina	15.3	Hernando Arrechea  Colombia	15.7
400 metres hurdles	Víctor Maldonado  Venezuela	51.5	Juan Carlos Dyrzka  Argentina	52.0	José Cavero  Peru	52.5
4 × 100 metres relay	Brazil Joel Satow Jose da Conceição Affonso da Silva Araken da Costa	41.2	Venezuela Arquímedes Herrera Manuel Planchart Rafael Romero Hortensio Fusil	41.3	Colombia Miguel Carabacho Francisco Gutiérrez Tito Diago Pedro Grajales	41.6
4 × 400 metres relay	Venezuela Aristides Pineda José Jacinto Hidalgo Hortensio Fusil Víctor Maldonado	3:14.5	Brazil Altemerindo Amorim Joel Rocha Waldemar Montesano Ernani Eisele	3:15.9	Argentina Carlos Meucheri Guillermo Vallania Juan Carlos Dyrzka Andrés Calonge	3:17.3
High jump	Eleuterio Fassi  Argentina	1.97	Roberto Abugattás  Peru	1.97	Carlos Colchado  Peru	1.91
Pole vault	Erico Barney  Argentina	4.25 CR	Parmenio Restrepo  Colombia	3.95	Maurício de Souza  Brazil	3.90
Long jump	Iván Moreno  Chile	7.29	Héctor Thomas  Venezuela	7.24	José Telles da Conceição  Brazil	7.06
Triple jump	Nelson Prudêncio  Brazil	14.96	Mário Gomes  Brazil	14.87	Juan Ivanovic  Chile	14.53
Shot put	José Jacques  Brazil	15.61	Luis Di Cursi  Argentina	15.29	Mario Peretti  Argentina	15.00
Discus throw	João Alexandre  Brazil	48.25	Dieter Gevert  Chile	48.15	Dagoberto González  Colombia	48.04
Hammer throw	Roberto Chapchap  Brazil	56.62 CR	José Vallejo  Argentina	54.94	Marcelino Borrero  Colombia	51.46
Javelin throw	Ian Barney  Argentina	66.43	Patricio Etcheverry  Chile	64.45	Jesús Rodríguez  Venezuela	64.28
Decathlon	Héctor Thomas  Venezuela	6555	Roberto Caravaca  Venezuela	6028	Renato Renk  Brazil	5486

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Marta Buongiorno  Argentina	12.2	Erica da Silva  Brazil	12.4	Emilia Dyrzka  Argentina	12.5
200 metres	Marta Buongiorno  Argentina	25.3	Erica da Silva  Brazil	25.6	Ada Brener  Argentina	25.7
80 metres hurdles	Emilia Dyrzka  Argentina	11.6	Carlota Ulloa  Chile	12.0	Marisol Massot  Chile	12.1
4 × 100 metres relay	Brazil Edir Ribeiro Gloria Ferraz Leda dos Santos Erica da Silva	47.7	Argentina Alicia Kaufmanas Emilia Dyrzka Ada Brener Marta Buongiorno	47.9	Chile Carlota Ulloa María Ducci Marisol Massot Nelly Arduz Orellana	49.0
High jump	Maria da Conceição  Brazil	1.69 CR	Aída dos Santos  Brazil	1.66	Irenice Rodrigues  Brazil	1.51
Long jump	Carlota Ulloa  Chile	5.53	Alicia Kaufmanas  Argentina	5.38	Edir Ribeiro  Brazil	5.28
Shot put	Norma Suárez  Argentina	12.93 CR	Miriam Yutronic  Chile	12.38	Eliana Bahamondes  Chile	12.25
Discus throw	Miriam Yutronic  Chile	45.33	Odete Domingos  Brazil	39.92	Isolina Vergara  Colombia	39.73
Javelin throw	Kiyomi Nakagawa  Brazil	41.51	Delia Vera  Peru	40.76	Rosa Molina  Chile	40.23

Medal table

  *   Host nation (Brazil)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Argentina (ARG)	10	8	7	25
2	Brazil (BRA)*	10	7	7	24
3	Chile (CHI)	6	5	8	19
4	Venezuela (VEN)	5	5	2	12
5	Colombia (COL)	0	2	5	7
6	Peru (PER)	0	2	2	4
7	Uruguay (URU)	0	2	0	2
Totals (7 entries)		31	31	31	93