The 1981 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in Grenoble, a city in France, between 21–22 February 1981. It was the second time the championships were held in the city. The track used for the championships was 180 metres long.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 metres details	Marian Woronin (POL)	5.65	Vladimir Muravyov (URS)	5.76	Andrey Shlyapnikov (URS)	5.77
400 metres details	Andreas Knebel (GDR)	46.52	Martin Weppler (FRG)	46.88	Stefano Malinverni (ITA)	46.96
800 metres details	Herbert Wursthorn (FRG)	1:47.70	András Paróczai (HUN)	1:47.73	Antonio Páez (ESP)	1:48.31
1500 metres details	Thomas Wessinghage (FRG)	3:42.64	Uwe Becker (FRG)	3:43.02	Mirosław Żerkowski (POL)	3:44.32
3000 metres details1	Alex Gonzalez (FRA)	7:22.71	Evgeni Ignatov (BUL)	No time	Valeriy Abramov (URS)	No time
50 metres hurdles details	Arto Bryggare (FIN)	6.47	Javier Moracho (ESP)	6.48	Guy Drut (FRA)	6.54
5000 metres walk details	Hartwig Gauder (GDR)	19:08.59 CR	Maurizio Damilano (ITA)	19:13.90	Gérard Lelievre (FRA)	19:55.02
High jump details	Roland Dalhäuser (SUI)	2.28	Carlo Thränhardt (FRG)	2.25	Dietmar Mögenburg (FRG)	2.25
Pole vault details	Thierry Vigneron (FRA)	5.70 =WR	Aleksandr Krupskiy (URS)	5.65	Jean-Michel Bellot (FRA)	5.65
Long jump details	Rolf Bernhard (SUI)	8.01	Antonio Corgos (ESP)	7.97	Shamil Abbyasov (URS)	7.95
Triple jump details	Shamil Abbyasov (URS)	17.30 WR	Klaus Kübler (FRG)	16.73	Aston Moore (GBR)	16.73
Shot put details	Reijo Ståhlberg (FIN)	19.88	Luc Viudès (FRA)	19.41	Zlatan Saracevic (YUG)	19.40

¹ The race was stopped one lap short (at 2820m) due to an official's error.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 metres details	Sofka Popova (BUL)	6.17	Linda Haglund (SWE)	6.17	Marita Koch (GDR)	6.19
400 metres details	Jarmila Kratochvílová (TCH)	50.07 CR	Natalya Bochina (URS)	52.32	Verona Elder (GBR)	52.37
800 metres details	Hildegard Ullrich (GDR)	2:00.94	Svetla Zlateva (BUL)	2:01.37	Nikolina Shtereva (BUL)	2:02.50
1500 metres details	Agnese Possamai (ITA)	4:07.49	Valentina Ilyinykh (URS)	4:08.17	Lyubov Smolka (URS)	4:08.64
50 metres hurdles details	Zofia Bielczyk (POL)	6.74 =WR	Maria Kemenchezhi (URS)	6.80	Tatyana Anisimova (URS)	6.81
High jump details	Sara Simeoni (ITA)	1.97 CR	Elżbieta Krawczuk (POL)	1.94	Urszula Kielan (POL)	1.94
Long jump details	Karin Hänel (FRG)	6.77 WR	Sigrid Heimann (GDR)	6.66	Jasmin Fischer (FRG)	6.65
Shot put details	Ilona Slupianek (GDR)	20.77	Helena Fibingerová (TCH)	20.64	Helma Knorscheidt (GDR)	20.12

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	East Germany (GDR)	4	1	2	7
2	West Germany (FRG)	3	4	2	9
3	France (FRA)	2	1	3	6
4	Poland (POL)	2	1	2	5
5	Italy (ITA)	2	1	1	4
6	Finland (FIN)	2	0	0	2
	Switzerland (SUI)	2	0	0	2
8	Soviet Union (URS)	1	5	5	11
9	Bulgaria (BUL)	1	2	1	4
10	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	1	1	0	2
11	Spain (ESP)	0	2	1	3
12	Hungary (HUN)	0	1	0	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	0	1
14	Great Britain (GBR)	0	0	2	2
15	Yugoslavia (YUG)	0	0	1	1
Totals (15 entries)		20	20	20	60

• 1981 in athletics (track and field)

• Results - men at GBRathletics.com
• Results - women at GBRathletics.com
• EAA