Athletics at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Montreal

There were 37 events in the programme - 14 for women and 23 for men. This was one event less than in the previous games in Munich as the 50 km road walk M was not on the agenda. The total number of competitors for the 37 events numbered 1039 athletes.

The competitions were highly influenced by the withdrawal of 22 African nations just hours before the start of the Montreal summer games. These countries demonstrated against New Zealand's participation in the games as a New Zealand rugby team had been allowed to participate in competitions in South Africa in the time before the Olympics. South Africa was already for the third consecutive time banned from the Olympic games because of the Apartheid rule but the IOC would not boycott New Zealand and therefore the 22 African nations did not attend. This meant that a number of prominent athletes could not compete in Montreal. Among them world record holder and favorite in the men's 1500 m Filbert Bayi from Tanzania, the defending Olympic champion in the men's 400 m hurdles John Akii-Bua from Uganda, and the strong Kenyan in the men's middle distance events Mike Boit. In the steeplechase and the long distance events the participants from especially Kenya and Ethiopia were missed.

Despite of this the competitions held a high quality. There were no superstars like Paavo Nurmi, Jesse Owens or Emil Zatopec as in former Olympic athletics competitions but a number of outstanding athletes made their mark in Olympic history.

Cuba's powerful runner Alberto Juantorena won as the first man ever both the 400 m and 800 m - the last distance in an impressive world record time. The Finn Lasse Viren won both the 5000 m M and 10.000 m M defending both of his titles from Munich. Sovietunion's Tatiana Kazankina became the third double gold medal winner by winning the women's 800 m and 1500 m and setting a world record on the 800 m.

Irena Szewinska ran a formiddable 400 m W in a world record time and thereby finished her olympic career in style with a gold medal 12 years after sin won her first gold medal in long jump at the Tokyo games in 1964. Edwin Moses from the USA began his international career in Montreal by winning gold and set a new world record in the 400 m hurdles M.

East Germany became the best athletics nation in Montreal taking gold in 11 of the 37 events. USA disappointed expectations by only winning 6 gold medals. Most remarkable was the American weakness in the sprinting events. Sovietunion and Poland each won 3 gold medals.