Athletics (Spanish: Atletismo), for the 2017 Bolivarian Games, took place at the Bureche Athletics Stadium in Santa Marta, Colombia from 21 to 25 November. A total of 47 events were contested, divided between the sexes bar the men's 50 kilometres walk.

The host nation, Colombia, topped the medal table (as it did in 2013) with 17 gold medals among a total of 52. Venezuela were the next most successful team, with 28 medals, 11 of them gold. Chile had the third highest number of winners, with six, while Ecuador was third on the total medal count with 21.

The most successful athlete of the competition was Venezuela's Nercely Soto, who won the women's 200 metres and 400 metres (defending her 2013 double) as well as taking gold in the 4 × 100 metres relay and bronze in the 4 × 400 metres relay. The prevented women' 100 metres champion Ángela Tenorio of Ecuador from multiple titles, as she finished as silver medallist in the 200 m and 4 × 100 m relay. Tenorio's compatriot Álex Quiñónez defended his men's 100 m and 200 m titles in record-breaking times however, as well as taking a relay bronze. Carlos Díaz of Chile took a distance double in the men's 1500 metres and 5000 metres, a feat matched on the women's side by Colombia's Muriel Coneo.

Inés Melchor won a third consecutive title in the 10,000 metres. Other women athletes who defended their 2013 titles were Gladys Tejeda (women's half marathon), Robeilys Peinado (pole vault), Karen Gallardo (discus throw), Rosa Rodríguez (hammer throw) and Flor Ruiz. Additionally on the men's side, José Peña defended his steeplechase title, Andrés Chocho the 50 km walk, and Jhon Murillo the triple jump.

Medalists

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m wind +1.6 m/s[1]	Álex Quiñónez  Ecuador	10.13 GR	Diego Palomeque  Colombia	10.31	Jhonny Rentería  Colombia	10.44
200 m wind +1.3 m/s	Álex Quiñónez  Ecuador	20.27 GR	Bernardo Baloyes  Colombia	20.77	Luguelín Santos  Dominican Republic	20.95
400 m	Luguelín Santos  Dominican Republic	45.44	Jhon Perlaza  Colombia	45.80	Alberto Aguilar  Venezuela	46.68
800 m	Rafith Rodríguez  Colombia	1:46.84	Lucirio Antonio Garrido  Venezuela	1:48.12	Jelssin Robledo  Colombia	1:49.20
1500 m[2]	Carlos Díaz  Chile	3:45.58	Freddy Espinosa  Colombia	3:46.24	Lucirio Antonio Garrido  Venezuela	3:47.92
5000 m	Carlos Díaz  Chile	14:02.92	Marvin Blanco  Venezuela	14:05.90	José Luis Rojas  Peru	14:07.48
10,000 m[3]	Luis Ostos  Peru	28:56.95 GR	José Mauricio González  Colombia	29:36.29	Luis Alberto Orta  Venezuela	29:59.26
110 m hurdles	Javier McFarlane  Peru	13.72	Juan Moreno  Colombia	13.89	Yeison Rivas  Colombia	13.89
400 m hurdles	Yeison Rivas  Colombia	50.47	Emerson Alejandro Chalá  Ecuador	50.53	Wilson Bello  Venezuela	50.74
3000 m steeplechase	José Peña  Venezuela	8:39.99	Gerald Giraldo  Colombia	8:40.12	Andrés Camargo  Colombia	8:40.80
4 × 100 m relay	Venezuela Alexis Nieves Arturo Ramírez Rafael Vásquez Yeiker Mendoza	39.40	Colombia Bernardo Baloyes Diego Palomeque Jhonny Rentería Deivi Díaz	39.58	Ecuador Álex Quiñónez Anderson Quintero Carlos Perlaza Jhon Valencia	39.83
4 × 400 m relay	Colombia Yilmar Herrera Rafith Rodríguez Jelssin Robledo Jhon Perlaza	3:06.14	Venezuela Alberto Aguilar Kelvis Padrino Luis Felipe Rodríguez Omar Longart	3:06.32	Chile Sergio Aldea José Manuel Del Prado Alejandro Francesco Rafael Muñoz	3:10.29
Half marathon	Jeison Suárez  Colombia	1:06:53	Diego Colorado  Colombia	1:07:15	Segundo Jami  Ecuador	1:07:41
20 km walk	Manuel Esteban Soto  Colombia	1:26:32	Mauricio Arteaga  Ecuador	1:27:03	Éider Arévalo  Colombia	1:27:47
50 km walk	Andrés Chocho  Ecuador	4:14:20	Ronald Quispe  Bolivia	4:25:30	Claudio Villanueva  Ecuador	4:49:33
High jump	Eure Yáñez  Venezuela	2.24 m	Arturo Chávez  Peru	2.18 m	Alexander Bowen  Panama	2.15 m
Pole vault	Walter Viafara  Colombia	5.25 m GR	José Pacho  Ecuador	5.20 m	Pablo Chaverra  Colombia	5.00 m
Long jump	Santiago Cova  Venezuela	7.81 m	Jorge McFarlane  Peru	7.65 m	Eddy Florián  Dominican Republic	7.50 m
Triple jump	Jhon Murillo  Colombia	16.16 m	Divie Murillo  Colombia	15.87 m	Santiago Cova  Venezuela	15.85 m
Shot put	Edder Moreno  Colombia	18.16 m	Jhon Zea  Colombia	17.92 m	Aldo Gonzáles  Bolivia	17.78 m
Discus throw	Juan Caicedo  Ecuador	57.99 m	José Miguel Ballivian  Chile	55.53 m	Claudio Romero  Chile	53.42 m
Hammer throw	Hevertt Álvarez  Chile	62.08 m	Elías Díaz  Colombia	61.49 m	Daniel Felipe Aguirre  Colombia	61.42 m
Javelin throw	Arley Ibargüen  Colombia	78.87 m GR	Dayron Márquez  Colombia	76.75 m	Julio Billy Williams  Venezuela	70.77 m
Decathlon	José Gregorio Lemos  Colombia	7827 pts GR	Óscar Campos  Venezuela	6972 pts	Georni Jaramillo  Venezuela	6745 pts

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m	Ángela Tenorio  Ecuador	11.26	Narcisa Landazuri  Ecuador	11.30	Andrea Purica  Venezuela	11.53
200 m	Nercely Soto  Venezuela	22.89	Ángela Tenorio  Ecuador	23.63	Narcisa Landazuri  Ecuador	23.65
400 m	Nercely Soto  Venezuela	52.43	Jennifer Padilla  Colombia	53.43	María Fernanda Mackenna  Chile	54.05
800 m	Rosangelica Escobar  Colombia	2:03.41	Andrea Calderón  Ecuador	2:04.00	Johana Arrieta  Colombia	2:04.61
1500 m	Muriel Coneo  Colombia	4:15.61	Rosibel García  Colombia	4:18.35	Zulema Arenas  Peru	4:19.03
5000 m	Muriel Coneo  Colombia	16:08.29	Carmen Toaquiza  Ecuador	16:13.49	Saida Meneses  Peru	16:13.80
10,000 m	Inés Melchor  Peru	33:57.13	Luz Mery Rojas  Peru	33:59.58	Carmen Martínez  Paraguay	34:07.14
100 m hurdles	Genesis Romero  Venezuela	13.19	Eliecith Palacios  Colombia	13.42	Maribel Caicedo  Ecuador	13.46
400 m hurdles	Julieth Caballero  Colombia	58.04	Gianna Woodruff  Panama	58.06	Melissa González  Colombia	58.14
3000 m steeplechase	Zulema Arenas  Peru	9:52.32	Rolanda Bell  Panama	10:08.56	Andrea Ferris  Panama	10:09.05
4 × 100 m relay	Venezuela Nediam Vargas Andrea Purica Génesis Romero Nercely Soto	44.15	Ecuador Maribel Caicedo Narcisa Landazuri Marina Poroso Ángela Tenorio	45.15	Colombia Melissa González Eliecith Palacios Darlenys Obregón Eliana Chávez	45.96
4 × 400 m relay	Chile Paula Goñi Carmen Mansilla María Fernanda Mackenna María José Echeverria	3:37.93	Colombia Eliana Chávez Johana Arrieta Julieth Caballero Rosangelica Escobar	3:38.49	Venezuela Pamela Milano Ydanis Navas María Simancas Nercely Soto	3:40.81
Half marathon	Gladys Tejeda  Peru	1:14:55	Angie Orjuela  Colombia	1:15:09	Diana Landi  Ecuador	1:17:23
20 km walk	Sandra Arenas  Colombia	1:32:39	Kimberly García  Peru	1:33:07	Ángela Castro  Bolivia	1:34:05
High jump	María Fernanda Murillo  Colombia	1.78 m	Amanda Vergara  Venezuela	1.78 m	Joice Micolta  Ecuador	1.78 m
Pole vault	Robeilys Peinado  Venezuela	4.20 m	Katherine Castillo  Colombia	4.00 m	Carmen Villanueva  Venezuela	4.00 m
Long jump	Nathalee Aranda  Panama	6.46 m	Macarena Reyes  Chile	6.34 m	Paola Mautino  Peru	6.25 m
Triple jump	Ana José Tima  Dominican Republic	13.50 m	Mirian Isabel Reyes  Peru	13.20 m	Valeria Quispe  Bolivia	13.17 m
Shot put	Natalia Duco  Chile	17.99 m	Sandra Lemos  Colombia	17.87 m	Ahymara Espinoza  Venezuela	16.57 m
Discus throw	Karen Gallardo  Chile	55.73 m	Aixa Middleton  Panama	54.74 m	Johana Martínez  Colombia	53.67 m
Hammer throw	Rosa Rodríguez  Venezuela	66.31 m	Johana Moreno  Colombia	62.17 m	Maryuri Orozco  Colombia	61.92 m
Javelin throw	Flor Ruiz  Colombia	62.48 m	Estefany Chacón  Venezuela	54.88 m	María Lucelly Murillo  Colombia	54.66 m
Heptathlon	Luisarys Toledo  Venezuela	5785 pts	Martha Araújo  Colombia	5703 pts	Joice Micolta  Ecuador	5154 pts

Medal table

  *   Host nation (Colombia)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Colombia (COL)*	17	22	13	52
2	Venezuela (VEN)	11	6	11	28
3	Chile (CHI)	6	2	3	11
4	Ecuador (ECU)	5	8	8	21
5	Peru (PER)	5	5	4	14
6	Dominican Republic (DOM)	2	0	2	4
7	Panama (PAN)	1	3	2	6
8	Bolivia (BOL)	0	1	3	4
9	Paraguay (PAR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (9 entries)		47	47	47	141

Participating nations