At the 1900 Summer Olympics, twenty-three athletics events were contested. Altogether, 117 athletes from 15 nations competed. A total of 68 medals (23 gold, 23 silver, and 22 bronze) were awarded. The 23 events listed are those currently considered to have been of Olympic stature by the International Olympic Committee and most Olympic historians. They exclude all events that used a handicap system, as well as all events which were open to professional athletes. The IOC has never in any way distinguished between the events at the 1900 Games as having or not having "Olympic stature".
Competitions were held on 14 July, 15 July, 16 July, 19 July, and 22 July. This included Bastille Day, which is a French holiday, and then Sunday, which many of the American athletes protested. Even with many Americans not competing in finals because of confusion caused by the organizers' decision to count scores achieved on Monday, 16 July for finals held on Sunday, 15 July and subsequent rescission of that decision, the United States won more than 4 times as many medals as any other nation, including 16 of the 23 gold medals.
The conditions of competition were also subpar compared even to those at the previous games in 1896. There was no track for the Paris Games, as a grass field dotted with trees and of unequal elevation was used. The course was 500 metres in length, an unusual distance for a track.
Medal summary
{|
|-
|60 metres<br>
|||7.0
|||7.1
|||7.2
|-
|100 metres<br>
|||11.0
|||11.1
|||11.2
|-
|200 metres<br>
|||22.2
|||22.8
|||22.9
|-
|400 metres<br>
|||49.4
|||49.6
|||51.5
|-
|800 metres<br>
|||2:01.2
|||2:03.0
|||2:03.8
|-
|1500 metres<br>
|||4:06.2
|||4:06.6
|||4:07.2
|-
| Marathon<br>
| ||2:59:45
|||3:04:17
|||3:37:14
|-
|110 metres hurdles<br>
|||15.4
|||15.5
|||15.6
|-
|200 metres hurdles<br>
|||25.4
|||26.0
|||26.1
|-
|400 metres hurdles<br>
|||57.6
|||58.3
|||58.8
|-
|2500 m steeplechase<br>
|||7:34.4
|||7:38.0
|||7:52.4
|-
|4000 m steeplechase<br>
|||12:58.4
|||12:58.6
|||12:58.8
|-valign="top"
|5000 m team race<br>
|<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>||26 pts
| <br />Henri Deloge<br />Jacques Chastanié<br />André Castanet<br />Michel Champoudry<br />Gaston Ragueneau||29 pts
|colspan=2|only two teams entered
|-
|High jump<br>
|||1.90 m
|||1.78 m
|||1.75 m
|-
|Pole vault<br>
|||3.30 m
|||3.25 m
|||3.20 m
|-
|Long jump<br>
|||7.185 m
|||7.175 m
|||6.950 m
|-
|Triple jump<br>
|||14.47 m
|||13.97 m
|||13.64 m
|-
|Standing high jump<br>
|||1.655 m
|||1.525 m
|||1.500 m
|-
|Standing long jump<br>
|||3.30 m
|||3.135 m
|||3.03 m
|-
|Standing triple jump<br>
|||10.58 m
|||9.95 m
|||9.50 m
|-
|Shot put<br>
|||14.10 m
|||12.85 m
|||12.37 m
|-
|Discus throw<br>
|||36.04 m
|||35.14 m
|||34.60 m
|-
|Hammer throw<br>
|||51.01 m
|||46.26 m
|||43.58 m
|}
These medals are retroactively assigned by the International Olympic Committee; at the time, winners were given a variety of prizes, sometimes including silver medals.
thumb|500px|right|Finish of the 800m
Daily summary
14 July
- All rounds, including the finals, for the 100 metres and the 110 metre hurdles were held. The United States took 5 of the medals, missing only the bronze medal in the 100 metres won by Stan Rowley of Australia. Frank Jarvis won the 100 metres, with Alvin Kraenzlein taking the gold in the 110 metre hurdles.
- In the 400 metre heats, the United States took 5 qualifying spots for the final while Denmark secured the last one. The 800 metres was more balanced, with 3 Americans and one athlete each from France, Great Britain, and Hungary.
- The 400 metre hurdles semifinals eliminated only one athlete, with the other four advancing to the finals.
- Defending discus and shot put champion Robert Garrett failed to make a mark in the qualification round of the discus throw, but did advance to the final in the shot put. Bohemia advanced a thrower in the discus, an event which saw 5 athletes from 5 different nations qualify.
- Surprising few, Kraenzlein and Meyer Prinstein took the top two spots in the long jump qualification, moving to the final along with a third American, a Briton, and a Frenchman.
15 July
- In a busy day for the athletics program, 10 finals were held along with the semifinals of the 60 metres (which was one of the events with a final that day). The United States took 7 of the championships, with Great Britain, Canada, and Hungary each picking up one.
- Kraenzlein took the top spots in the 60 metres and the long jump, the latter victory allegedly earning him a punch in the face from Prinstein, who had not competed because the final was held on a Sunday. This brought Kraenzlein's total to 3 gold medals, better than any athlete had done four years earlier. Irving Baxter also took gold in two events, the high jump and the pole vault.
- Denmark won its first athletics medal, with a bronze in the 400 metres. Charles Bennett's gold in the 1500 metres gave Britain its first gold in the sport. Canadian George Orton took two medals, a gold and a bronze, but did so while representing the United States.