At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, 29 athletics events were contested, 23 for men and 6 for women. The program of events was unchanged from the previous Games. There was a total of 776 participants from 43 countries competing.
^ abBoth Sohn Kee-chung (Son Kitei) and Nam Sung-yong (Nan Shoryu) were from Korea. The IOC credits both medals to Japan due to Korea being a Japanese colony at the time. All Korean Olympians during the Japanese colonial rule could only participate in the Games as a representative of Japan and Japan required them to use the Japanese forms of their names. However, some sources still refer to Son Kitei as the first Korean to win an Olympic marathon.
^Was a "world best" time as world records were not yet recognised for the event.