The 1983 South American Championships in Athletics were held at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento Deportivo Pedro Candioti in Santa Fe, Argentina, between 29 September and 2 October.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: -0.7 m/s)	Nelson dos Santos  Brazil	10.3	Paulo Correia  Brazil	10.5	Giorgio Mautino  Peru	10.5
200 metres (wind: -1.8 m/s)	Paulo Correia  Brazil	21.3	Nelson dos Santos  Brazil	21.5	José María Beduino  Argentina	21.7
400 metres	Sérgio Menezes  Brazil	46.8	Evaldo da Silva  Brazil	47.4	Wolfman Mena  Colombia	47.5
800 metres	José Luíz Barbosa  Brazil	1:49.1	Emilio Ulloa  Chile	1:49.2	Raúl López  Argentina	1:50.5
1500 metres	Emilio Ulloa  Chile	3:48.3	Omar Ortega  Argentina	3:48.9	Adauto Domingues  Brazil	3:50.8
5000 metres	Omar Aguilar  Chile	14:00.9	João de Ataide  Brazil	14:01.2	Germán Peña  Colombia	14:03.1
10,000 metres	Omar Aguilar  Chile	29:12.1	João de Ataide  Brazil	29:13.4	Jairo Correa  Colombia	29:22.7
Marathon	Juan Plagman  Chile	2:15:50	Jairo Correa  Colombia	2:17:43	Rafael Parra  Colombia	2:19:42
110 metres hurdles (wind: +0.9 m/s)	Pedro Chiamulera  Brazil	14.3	Wellington da Nobrega  Brazil	14.5	Rodolfo Iturraspe  Argentina	14.9
400 metres hurdles	Pedro Chiamulera  Brazil	52.2	Rodrigo de la Fuente  Chile	52.7	Elias da Fonseca  Brazil	52.8
3000 metres steeplechase	Emilio Ulloa  Chile	8:44.6 CR	Wilson de Santana  Brazil	8:47.7	Adauto Domingues  Brazil	8:50.8
4 × 100 metres relay	Brazil Marcus Barros Nelson dos Santos Paulo Correia Sérgio Menezes	40.7	Argentina Alfredo Muro Oscar Barrionuevo Hugo Alzamora José María Beduino	40.8	Uruguay Luis Cabral Daniel Ipata Anataniel Guzmán Rubén da Cunha	41.4
4 × 400 metres relay	Brazil Paulo Roberto Correia Evaldo da Silva José Luíz Barbosa Sérgio Menezes	3:10.8	Chile Carlos Contreras Rodrigo de la Fuente Luis Alberto Schneider Mauricio Urquiza	3:13.6	Argentina Eduardo Sandes Daniel Bambicha Hugo Alzamora Raúl López	3:14.5
20 kilometres road walk	Héctor Moreno  Colombia	1:24:12 CR	Francisco Vargas  Colombia	1:25:35	Osvaldo Morejón  Bolivia	1:32:20
High jump	Jorge Archanjo  Brazil	2.14	Fernando Pastoriza  Argentina	2.14	Rodrigo de la Fuente  Chile	2.04
Pole vault	Fernando Hoces  Chile	4.70	Renato Bortolocci  Brazil	4.60	Walter Franzantti  Argentina Oscar Veit  Argentina	4.50
Long jump	Osvaldo Frigerio  Argentina	7.51	Luiz Favero  Brazil	7.41	Marcus Barros  Brazil	7.28
Triple jump	Francisco Pichott  Chile	15.64	José Quiñaliza  Ecuador	15.52	Jailto Bonfim  Brazil	15.44
Shot put	Gert Weil  Chile	18.29 CR	Juan Turri  Argentina	16.56	Adilson Oliveira  Brazil	15.70
Discus throw	José Jacques  Brazil	51.86	Celso da Cunha  Brazil	50.50	Andrés Pérez  Chile	49.24
Hammer throw	Ivam Bertelli  Brazil	61.16	Roberto Olcese  Argentina	60.56	Pedro Rivail Atílio  Brazil	59.74
Javelin throw	José de Souza  Brazil	74.54	Luis Martínez  Colombia	71.48	Amilcar de Barros  Brazil	71.24
Decathlon	Carlos Gambetta  Argentina	7252	Ronaldo Alcaraz  Brazil	7096	Antônio Balbuena  Brazil	6959

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: +0.4 m/s)	Esmeralda de Jesus Garcia  Brazil	11.6	Sheila de Oliveira  Brazil	11.8	Daisy Salas  Chile	11.9
200 metres (wind: -1.5 m/s)	Jucilene Garcês  Brazil	24.5	Sheila de Oliveira  Brazil	24.9	Margarita Grün  Uruguay	24.9
400 metres	Elba Barbosa  Brazil	54.0	Jucilene Garcês  Brazil	54.0	Norfalia Carabalí  Colombia	54.8
800 metres	Alejandra Ramos  Chile	2:04.6	Soraya Telles  Brazil	2:06.2	Norfalia Carabalí  Colombia	2:07.2
1500 metres	Alejandra Ramos  Chile	4:25.3	Monica Regonesi  Chile	4:27.2	Adriana Marchena  Venezuela	4:27.5
3000 metres	Monica Regonesi  Chile	9:57.2 CR	María Victoria Biondi  Argentina	10:02.2	Ruth Jaime  Peru	10:06.3
100 metres hurdles (wind: -0.3 m/s)	Beatriz Capotosto  Argentina	13.2 CR	Juraciara da Silva  Brazil	13.7	Orlane dos Santos  Brazil	14.4
400 metres hurdles	Conceição Geremias  Brazil	59.5 CR	Margit Weise  Brazil	60.5	Anabella Dal Lago  Argentina	62.6
4 × 100 metres relay	Brazil Elba Barbosa Juraciara da Silva Esmeralda Garcia Sheila de Oliveira	45.4	Uruguay Graciela Acosta Andrea Sassi Claudia Acerenza Margarita Grün	47.7	Only two finishers
4 × 400 metres relay	Brazil Margit Weise Maria do Carmo Fialho Jucilene Garcês Elba Barbosa	3:40.0 CR	Chile Graciela Mardones Paola Raab Alejandra Ramos Cecilia Rodríguez	3:45.3	Argentina Amalia Linietzky Marcela López María Elena Croatto Andrea Fuchs	3:48.7
High jump	Orlane dos Santos  Brazil	1.80	Conceição Geremias  Brazil	1.77	Liliana Arigoni  Argentina Carmen Garib  Chile	1.71
Long jump	Esmeralda de Jesus Garcia  Brazil	6.12	Adriana Ruffin  Chile	5.84	Orlane dos Santos  Brazil	5.79
Shot put	Maria Fernandes  Brazil	15.01 CR	Marinalva dos Santos  Brazil	14.87	Jazmín Cirio  Chile	14.04
Discus throw	Odete Domingos  Brazil	49.30	María Isabel Urrutia  Colombia	45.00	Maria Fernandes  Brazil	44.72
Javelin throw	Marieta Riera  Venezuela	51.04 CR	Carolina Weil  Chile	50.68	Mariela Riera  Venezuela	49.18
Heptathlon	Conceição Geremias  Brazil	5865 CR	Olga Verissimo  Brazil	5371	Yvonne Neddermann  Argentina	5273

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil (BRA)	23	20	12	55
2	Chile (CHI)	11	7	5	23
3	Argentina (ARG)	3	6	10	19
4	Colombia (COL)	1	4	6	11
5	Venezuela (VEN)	1	0	2	3
6	Uruguay (URU)	0	1	2	3
7	Ecuador (ECU)	0	1	0	1
8	Peru (PER)	0	0	2	2
9	Bolivia (BOL)	0	0	1	1
Totals (9 entries)		39	39	40	118

• 1983 in athletics (track and field)

• Men Results – GBR Athletics
• Women Results – GBR Athletics
• Medallist