The athletics competition in the 1938 Central American and Caribbean Games were held at the Estadio Nacional in Panama City, Panama. It was the first time women's events were included.

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Jennings Blackett  Panama	10.4	Jacinto Ortiz  Cuba	10.4e	Eulalio Villodas  Puerto Rico	10.6e
200 metres	Jacinto Ortiz  Cuba	21.7	Eulalio Villodas  Puerto Rico	21.8e	Arthur Jones  Jamaica	22.0e
400 metres	Arturo Baker  Panama	49.7	Adolfo Curiel  Mexico		Gilberto Castruita  Mexico
800 metres	Arthur Wint  Jamaica	1:56.3	Alfredo Mariscal  Mexico	1:56.6e	Pedro Zúñiga  Mexico	1:56.7e
1500 metres	Guy Grant  Jamaica	4:13.6	Alfredo Cortés  Mexico	4:13.8e	Miguel Corona  Mexico
5000 metres	Guy Grant  Jamaica	17:55.1	Jesús Borgonio  Mexico		Maríano Ramírez  Mexico
10,000 metres	Agustín Romero  Mexico	34:15.1	Guadalupe Martínez  Mexico		José López  El Salvador
Marathon	José Thompson  Panama	03:01:04	Estanislao Galicia  Mexico		Hilario Hernández  Mexico
110 metres hurdles	Horacio Quiñones  Puerto Rico	14.8	Teófilo Colón  Puerto Rico	14.9e	Roberto Sánchez  Mexico	15.2e
400 metres hurdles	Evelio Espinosa  Cuba	55.8	Salvador Torrós  Puerto Rico	55.9e	Arthur Wint  Jamaica
4 x 100 m relay	Puerto Rico Eulalio Villodas Eugenio Guerra Rubén Malavé Gaspar Vázquez	42.2	Panama Teófilo Thomas Gilberto Campbell Jennings Blackett Carlos Belisario	42.7e	Cuba Jacinto Ortiz José Acosta Norberto Verrier Hilario Sotolongo	42.8e
4 x 400 m relay	Panama Harold Scott Stanley Edgardo Wesley Chevans Arturo Baker	3:21.5	Mexico Adolfo Curiel Alfredo Mariscal Gilberto Castruita Enrique Sánchez	3:23.0e	Cuba Armando Baluja Gerardo Casanova Luis Vázquez Evelio Espínola	3:24.5e
High jump	Juan Luyanda  Puerto Rico	1.89	Arturo Baker  Panama	1.87	Juan Rafael Palmer  Puerto Rico	1.83
Pole vault	Rigoberto Pérez  Mexico	3.74	José Sabater  Puerto Rico	3.65	Manuel Boyer  Puerto Rico	3.65
Long jump	Juan Luyanda  Puerto Rico	6.75	Juan Rafael Palmer  Puerto Rico	6.69	Salvador Torrós  Puerto Rico	6.55
Triple jump	Juan Rafael Palmer  Puerto Rico	13.86	Juan Luyanda  Puerto Rico	13.76	Orlando Bello  Cuba	13.75
Shot put	Antulio Pietri  Puerto Rico	13.50	Fernando Torres  Puerto Rico	13.30	Ian Murphy  Puerto Rico	13.08
Discus throw	Ian Murphy  Puerto Rico	42.42	Heriberto Alonso  Cuba	40.73	Miguel Gutiérrez  Cuba	40.47
Hammer throw	Bernabé Sánchez  Cuba	39.85	Francisco González  Mexico	38.18	Ignacio Vázquez  Cuba	37.45
Javelin throw	Antonio Figueroa  Puerto Rico	64.11	Mario Salas  Cuba	58.76	Wilfredo Benítez  Mexico	56.43
Pentathlon	Salvador Torrós  Puerto Rico	3459	Manuel Suárez  Cuba	3158	Juan Luyanda  Puerto Rico	3097

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Nola Thorne  Panama	12.6	Nilda Villaverde  Panama	12.6e	Adela Montilla  Panama	12.7e
80 metres hurdles	Nola Thorne  Panama	13.3	Aura Morales  Panama	13.6e	Nilda Villaverde  Panama
4 x 100 m relay	Panama Natalia Taivez Nola Thorne Adela Montilla Nilda Villaverde	51.3	Cuba Marta Velasco Carmen Ortega Zenaida Castro Olga Agüero		Jamaica Gertrude Messam Rhona Saunders Beryl Delgado Icis Clarke
High jump	Lilia Wilson  Panama	1.41	Beryl Delgado  Jamaica	1.39	Isabel Sullivan  Panama	1.32
Discus throw	Rebecca Coldberg  Puerto Rico	27.81	Esperanza Morales  Mexico	24.89	Irma Cornejo  El Salvador	23.89
Javelin throw	Rebecca Coldberg  Puerto Rico	30.25	Marina Soto  Mexico	29.30	Florinda Viamontes  Cuba	28.16

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Puerto Rico (PUR)	11	7	6	24
2	Panama (PAN)	8	4	3	15
3	Cuba (CUB)	3	5	6	14
4	Jamaica (JAM)	3	1	3	7
5	Mexico (MEX)	2	10	7	19
6	El Salvador (ESA)	0	0	2	2
Totals (6 entries)		27	27	27	81