Athletics events at the 1990 South American Games were held at the Estadio Atlético de San Luis next to the Estadio Nacional in Lima, Perú, between December 6-9, 1990.^[1] A total of 42 events were contested, 23 by men and 19 by women.

Medal winners were published in a book by written Argentinian journalist Ernesto Rodríguez III with support of the Argentine Olympic Committee (Spanish: Comité Olímpico Argentino) under the auspices of the Ministry of Education (Spanish: Ministerio de Educación de la Nación) in collaboration with the Office of Sports (Spanish: Secretaría de Deporte de la Nación).^[2] Eduardo Biscayart supplied the list of winners and their results.^[3] More results were assembled from other sources.^[4][5]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: -1.0 m/s)	Roberto Marshall  Chile	10.81	Miguel Bernal  Peru	10.83	Carlos Gats  Argentina	10.84
200 metres	Carlos Gats  Argentina	22.28	Jorge Cañizales  Venezuela	22.56	Roberto Marshall  Chile	22.65
400 metres	Carlos Morales  Chile	48.30	Hernán Hevia  Chile	48.60	José Zambrano  Venezuela	48.80
800 metres	Edwin Lobatón  Bolivia	1:56.2	Manuel Bravo  Ecuador	1:56.3	Daniel Loayza  Peru	1:56.7
1500 metres	José Carrasco  Chile	3:56.10	Miguel Meza  Chile	3:58.30	Edwin Lobatón  Bolivia	3:59.70
5000 metres	José Carrasco  Chile	14:10.4	Silvio Guerra  Ecuador	14:10.8	Luis Nempo  Chile	14:19.1
10,000 metres	Silvio Guerra  Ecuador	29:59.7	Néstor Jami  Ecuador	30:02.2	José Castillo  Peru	30:10.4
Marathon	Waldemar Cotelo  Uruguay	2:18:47	Edwin Calatayud  Bolivia	2:20:50	José Jami  Ecuador	2:24:00
110 metres hurdles	Marco Mina  Peru	14.84	Arturo Rodríguez  Chile	15.03	Fernando Valiente  Peru	15.48
400 metres hurdles	Marco Mina  Peru	52.6	Nicolás Majluf  Chile	54.9	Luis Page  Peru	55.2
3000 metres steeplechase	Miguel Meza  Chile	9:01.8	Eddy Punica  Ecuador	9:04.2	Silviano Simeón  Peru	9:16.7
4 x 100 metres relay	Peru Moisés Del Castillo Miguel Bernal José Uribe Óscar Fernández	41.0	Chile Roberto Marshall Carlos Morales Carlos Bernardo Moreno Juan Francisco Cobo	41.3	Bolivia Jorge Castellón Marco Ortiz Vladimir Aponte Miguel Mercado	41.9
4 x 400 metres relay	Chile Roberto Marshall Nicolas Majluf Hernán Hevia Carlos Morales	3:16.70	Peru Marco Mina Aldo Consiglieri Pedro Velarde Ramiro Quintana	3:18.20	Ecuador Fernando Espinosa Dick Perlaza Aurelio Mancheno Manuel Bravo	3:18.22
20 Kilometres Walk	Luis Rodríguez  Ecuador	1:45:13	Carlos Montalbán  Ecuador	1:46:26	Sergio Quispe  Peru	1:46:53
High Jump	Fernando Moreno  Argentina	2.15	Hugo Muñoz  Peru	2.12	Valery Abugattas  Peru	2.06
Pole Vault	Konstantín Zagustín  Venezuela	5.15	Cristián Aspillaga  Chile	4.90	Oscar Veit  Argentina	4.70
Long Jump	Joan Moeckel  Chile	7.67	Ricardo Valiente  Peru	7.56	Fernando Valiente  Peru	7.33
Triple Jump	Ricardo Valiente  Peru	16.47	Alfredo Audain  Venezuela	16.27	Oscar Valiente  Peru	15.48
Shot Put	Gert Weil  Chile	18.32	Andrés Charadía  Argentina	15.24	Marcelo Pugliese  Argentina	14.76
Discus Throw	Andrés Solo  Chile	47.20	Andrés Charadía  Argentina	47.10	Marcelo Pugliese  Argentina	46.70
Hammer Throw	Andrés Charadía  Argentina	69.94 AR	Marcelo Pugliese  Argentina	58.74	Rubén Torres  Ecuador	54.78
Javelin Throw	Pedro Claure  Chile	66.14	Edgar Baumann  Paraguay	64.40	Jorge Parraguirre  Chile	62.74
Decathlon	Moisés Del Castillo  Peru	5717	Álvaro Fernández  Peru	5160

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: -1.1 m/s)	Marbelis Barriga  Venezuela	12.18	Claudia Acerenza  Uruguay	12.20	Lisette Rondón  Chile	12.29
200 metres	Olga Conte  Argentina	25.24	Claudia Acerenza  Uruguay	25.75	Lisette Rondón  Chile	26.00
400 metres	Olga Conte  Argentina	55.03	Claudia Acerenza  Uruguay	55.22	Ismenia Guzmán  Chile	55.64
800 metres	Letitia Vriesde  Suriname	2:06.2	Adriana Martínez  Ecuador	2:11.2	Ismenia Guzmán  Chile	2:12.1
1500 metres	Letitia Vriesde  Suriname	4:23.0	Janeth Caizalitin  Ecuador	4:32.0	Niusha Mansilla  Bolivia	4:37.4
3000 metres	Yolanda Quimbita  Ecuador	9:50.7	Ena Guevara  Peru	9:58.2	Marisol Cossio  Bolivia	10:14.5
10,000 metres	Yolanda Quimbita  Ecuador	35:40.4	Ena Guevara  Peru	36:04.80	Mónica Tapia  Ecuador	36:09.8
Marathon	Graciela Caizabanda  Ecuador	2:56:44	Elsa Pizarro  Chile	3:10:16	Florinda Tamayo  Peru	3:14:01
100 metres hurdles	Carmen Bezanilla  Chile	13.96	Débora De Souza  Peru	15.39	Michelle Openshaw  Peru	15.39
400 metres hurdles	Liliana Chalá  Ecuador	59.8	Inés Justet  Uruguay	60.4	Carmen Bezanilla  Chile	61.2
4 x 100 metres relay	Uruguay Marcela Tiscornia Soledad Acerenza Laura Abel Claudia Acerenza	47.19	Bolivia Jacqueline Solíz Elizabeth Arteaga Ana María Luzio Sandra Antela	48.72	Peru Ana Atencio Rocío de la Cruz Debora De Souza Cecilia Zereceda	48.93
4 x 400 metres relay	Uruguay Inés Justet Marcela Tiscornia Laura Abel Claudia Acerenza	3:44.70	Chile Gina Pareglio Sara Montecinos Hannelore Grosser Ismenia Guzmán	3:47.60	Ecuador Liliana Chalá Mercy Colorado Adriana Martínez Mayra Carchi	3:54.62
10 Kilometres Walk	Mirian Ramón  Ecuador	50:46.1	Bertha Vera  Ecuador	56:37.3
High Jump	María Chomali  Chile	1.70	Ximena Guzmán  Peru	1.60	Claudia Brien  Chile	1.60
Long Jump	Andrea Ávila  Argentina	6.12	Deisy Zereceda  Peru	5.64	María Luzio  Bolivia	5.48
Shot Put	Carmen Chalá  Ecuador	13.44	Claudia Brien  Chile	12.80	Rosa Peña  Peru	12.66
Discus Throw	Liliana Martinelli  Argentina	48.00 AR	Claudia Larenas  Chile	43.96	Carmen Chalá  Ecuador	43.14
Javelin Throw	Claudia Brien  Chile	35.32	Hanny Basurco  Peru	35.02	Marie Musselmann  Peru	34.82
Heptathlon	Katherine Yáñez  Peru	4234	Marleni Olaechea  Peru	3681	Carmen Chalá  Ecuador	2421

  *   Host nation (Peru)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Chile	13	10	9	32
2	Ecuador	8	8	7	23
3	Argentina	7	3	4	14
4	Peru*	6	12	14	32
5	Uruguay	3	4	0	7
6	Venezuela	2	2	1	5
7	Suriname	2	0	0	2
8	Bolivia	1	2	5	8
9	Paraguay	0	1	0	1
Totals (9 entries)		42	42	40	124