The 1956 South American Championships in Athletics were held in the Chilean capital, Santiago, between 14 and 22 April.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Paulo de Fonseca  Brazil	10.6	Gerardo Bönnhoff  Argentina	10.7	João Pires Sobrinho  Brazil	10.7
200 metres	João Pires Sobrinho  Brazil	21.5	Jaime Aparicio  Colombia	21.7	Gerardo Bönnhoff  Argentina	21.8
400 metres	Jaime Aparicio  Colombia	47.7 CR	Zados Guardiola  Colombia	48.2	Argemiro Roque  Brazil	49.0
800 metres	Ramón Sandoval  Chile	1:49.0 CR	Eduardo Balducci  Argentina	1:51.5	Argemiro Roque  Brazil	1:52.4
1500 metres	Ramón Sandoval  Chile	3:48.4 CR	Eduardo Balducci  Argentina	3:53.4	Waldo Sandoval  Chile	3:54.5
5000 metres	Osvaldo Suárez  Argentina	14:30.8 CR	Jaime Correa  Chile	14:47.8	Walter Lemos  Argentina	14:51.7
10,000 metres	Osvaldo Suárez  Argentina	30:12.2 CR	Walter Lemos  Argentina	30:27.4	Alfredo de Oliveira  Brazil	31:41.0
Half marathon	Osvaldo Suárez  Argentina	1:08:54 CR	Walter Lemos  Argentina	1:09:00	Juan Silva  Chile	1:10:31
3000 metres steeplechase	Santiago Novas  Chile	9:09.0 CR	Sebastião Mendes  Brazil	9:17.4	Guillermo Solá  Chile	9:25.8
110 metres hurdles	Ijoel da Silva  Brazil	14.7	Estanislao Kocourek  Argentina	14.9	Francisco Bergonzoni  Brazil	15.1
400 metres hurdles	Jaime Aparicio  Colombia	52.0 CR	Zados Guardiola  Colombia	53.1	Anubes da Silva  Brazil	54.2
4 × 100 metres relay	Brazil João Pires Sobrinho Jorge de Barros Paulo da Fonseca Anubes da Silva	41.4	Argentina Luis Vienna Roberto Ferrairo Gerardo Bönnhoff Mariano Acosta	41.5	Colombia Gilberto Truque Constantino Fascie Antonio Vanegas Aristipo Lerma	42.6
4 × 400 metres relay	Colombia Jaime Aparicio Zados Guardiola Carlos Sierra Antonio Vanegas	3:14.6 CR	Brazil Argemiro Roque Mário do Nascimento Adhemar da Silva Agenor da Silva	3:16.1	Argentina Rodolfo Beltrán Mariano Acosta Gerardo Bönnhoff Eduardo Balducci	3:16.8
High jump	Oscar Bártoli  Argentina	1.93	Ernesto Lagos  Chile	1.90	Alberto Bacán  Brazil Juan Ruiz  Chile	1.85
Pole vault	José Infante  Chile	3.90	José Rojas  Chile	3.90	Fausto de Souza  Brazil	3.90
Long jump	Fermín Donazar  Uruguay	7.23	Ary de Sá  Brazil	7.14	Luís Akuta  Brazil	7.10
Triple jump	Jorgely Figueira  Brazil	15.14	Luis Huarcaya  Peru	14.59	Carlos Vera  Chile	14.63
Shot put	Alcides Dambrós  Brazil	14.97	Rubén Scaraffia  Argentina	14.72	Günther Kruse  Argentina	13.97
Discus throw	Günther Kruse  Argentina	48.57 CR	Hernán Haddad  Chile	47.24	Pedro Ucke  Argentina	46.56
Hammer throw	Alejandro Díaz  Chile	52.88	Edmundo Zúñiga  Chile	51.71	Elvio Porta  Argentina	51.55
Javelin throw	Ricardo Héber  Argentina	64.45	Néstor Matteucci  Argentina	61.51	Carlos Monge  Peru	59.20
Decathlon	Héctor Menacho  Peru	5670	Leonardo Kittsteiner  Chile	5499	Aldo Ribeiro  Brazil	5401

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Gladys Erbetta  Argentina	12.2 =CR	Beatriz Kretschmer  Chile	12.4	Eliana Gaete  Chile	12.4
200 metres	Beatriz Kretschmer  Chile	25.5 =CR	Gladys Erbetta  Argentina	25.8	Martha Huby  Peru	26.1
80 metres hurdles	Wanda dos Santos  Brazil	11.5	Eliana Gaete  Chile	11.6	Ada Brener  Argentina	11.9
4 × 100 metres relay	Argentina Gladys Erbetta Lilian Buglia Edith Berg Olga Bianchi	48.6	Chile Marlene Hyslop Eliana Gaete Carmen Venegas Patricia Rodoni	49.3	Brazil Wanda dos Santos María José de Lima Marlene Porto Hannelore Poetscher	49.4
High jump	Nelly Gómez  Chile	1.50	Elizabeth Müller  Brazil	1.50	María Cañas  Chile Cleide Eloy  Brazil	1.50
Long jump	Gladys Erbetta  Argentina	5.88 CR	Ada Brener  Argentina	5.41	Olga Bianchi  Argentina	5.39
Shot put	Eliana Bahamondes  Chile	11.95 CR	Pradelia Delgado  Chile	11.84	Elizabeth Müller  Brazil	11.31
Discus throw	Isabel Avellán  Argentina	44.08 CR	Rosa Riveros  Chile	38.22	Ingeborg Mello  Argentina	38.08
Javelin throw	Marlene Ahrens  Chile	48.73 CR	Carmen Venegas  Chile	40.70	Adriana Silva  Chile	38.91

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Argentina (ARG)	10	11	9	30
2	Chile (CHI)	9	12	8	29
3	Brazil (BRA)	7	4	13	24
4	Colombia (COL)	3	3	1	7
5	Peru (PER)	1	1	2	4
6	Uruguay (URU)	1	0	0	1
Totals (6 entries)		31	31	33	95

• Men Results – GBR Athletics
• Women Results – GBR Athletics
• Medallists