At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, 36 athletics events were contested, 24 for men and 12 for women. There were a total number of 1031 participating athletes from 93 countries.
These games were notable for a number of Olympic firsts and numerous world records, attributable to the high altitude of Mexico City. These included:
This was the first Olympics to use an all-weather track surface now used in every major international athletics competition.