Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Competition schedule

The venue for the track and field events was the Olympic Stadium while the walks and the marathons started and finished on The Mall. In the tables below, M stands for morning and A for afternoon.

Medal summary

(WR = World Record, OR = Olympic Record)

Men

*Indicates the athlete only competed in the preliminary heats.

^{4 × 100 metres relay} Tyson Gay was stripped of his silver medal due to doping violations. Following consideration by the IOC, the United States team were disqualified, and their results expunged. The decision was referred back to the IAAF for other results to be adjusted in the wake of the disqualification, promoting Trinidad and Tobago to silver, and France to bronze. The French team received their bronze medals at the IAAF Diamond League in Paris in July 2015.

^{50 kilometres walk} On 24 March 2016, the Court of Arbitration for Sport has issued decision that all competitive results obtained by Sergey Kirdyapkin from 20 August 2009 to 15 October 2012 are disqualified. Redistribution of the medals in this event occurred in 17 June 2016, with Tallent awarded the gold medal by the IOC at a ceremony in Melbourne, Australia, with Si claiming silver and Heffernan bronze.

^{javelin throw} Original silver medalist Oleksandr Pyatnytsya of Ukraine was stripped of his silver medal and result following a positive finding in a retest of his 2012 anti-doping sample. On February 24, 2017 Antti Ruuskanen received the silver medal in Finland.

Women

*Indicates the athlete only competed in the preliminary heats.

^{800 metres} On 10 February 2017, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a four year ban that effectively stripped of the gold medal of Mariya Savinova, based upon her biological passport.

^{1500 metres} On 17 August 2015, the Court of Arbitration for Sport says it approved a settlement agreed to by Turkish athlete Aslı Çakır Alptekin and the IAAF. Alptekin has agreed to forfeit her 1500 metres Olympic title and serve an eight-year ban for blood doping. IOC has not yet confirmed the redistribution of the medals in this event.

^{3000 metres steeplechase} On 30 January 2015, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency confirmed that runner Yuliya Zaripova will be stripped of her gold medal in the 3,000 metres steeplechase after testing positive for anabolic steroids. On June 4, 2016, the gold medal was officially reallocated to second place Habiba Ghribi from Tunisia by the IOC and IAAF updated the results.

^{4 x 400 relay} On 1 February 2017, the International Olympic Committee stripped the silver medal of the Russian team due to doping of Antonina Krivoshapka

^{20 kilometres walk} On 24 March 2016, the Court of Arbitration for Sport has issued decision that all competitive results obtained by Olga Kaniskina from 15 August 2009 to 15 October 2012 are disqualified. IOC has not yet confirmed the redistribution of the medals in this event.

^{shot put} The original winner, Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus, was stripped of her gold medal shortly after the event after failing a doping test. The rest of the competitors were elevated by one position accordingly. On 20 August 2016, Yevgeniya Kolodko of Russia was also stripped of her silver medal after retested samples from the competition returned a positive doping result.

^{discus throw} The original silver medalist, Darya Pishchalnikova of Russia, was stripped of her silver medal after failing drugs tests. The rest of the competitors were elevated by one position accordingly.

^{hammer throw} The original gold medalist, Tatyana Lysenko of Russia, was stripped of her gold medal after failing drugs tests. Medals have yet to be reallocated.

^heptathlon On 29 November 2016, the Court of Arbitration for Sport has issued decision that all competitive results of original bronze medalist Tatyana Chernova between 15 August 2011 and 22 July 2013 are annulled.

Medal table

Note: Three competitors tied for bronze in the men's high jump event.

World and Olympic records

A total of four world records in athletics and eleven Olympic records were broken during the competition. This was fewer than were set at the Beijing Olympics (5 world, 17 Olympic records) but greater than the number set at the 2004 Games in Athens (2 world, 10 Olympic records).

China's Chen Ding was the first Olympic record breaker, improving the men's 20 km walk record. All three Olympic walk records were broken in London as Sergey Kirdyapkin bettered the Olympic 50 km walk time and Elena Lashmanova set a new world record in the women's 20 km walk.

Usain Bolt was the first track athlete to improve an Olympic record as he defended his 100 m title with a run of 9.63 s. He later joined the Jamaican 4 × 100 metres relay team (featuring Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and Yohan Blake) to set a world record time of 36.84 s. The women's 4 × 100 metres relay event also saw a world record: an American team of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter ran 40.82 seconds to take half a second off a record which had stood for nearly 27 years. Further women's Olympic records were set by Ethiopia's Tiki Gelana in the marathon, Sally Pearson in the 100 metres hurdles and Tatyana Lysenko in the hammer throw.

David Rudisha improved his own 800 metres world record to 1:40.91 minutes, becoming the first man to break that record at the Olympics since Ralph Doubell did so at the 1968 Games. Renaud Lavillenie was the only man to break a field event record, as he cleared an Olympic best of 5.97 m to win the pole vault competition.

Doping

Prior to the Olympic competition, several prominent athletes were ruled out of the competition due to failed tests. World indoor medallists Dimitrios Chondrokoukis, Debbie Dunn, and Mariem Alaoui Selsouli were withdrawn from their Olympic teams in July for doping, as was 2004 Olympic medallist Zoltán Kővágó. At the Olympic competition, Tameka Williams admitted to taking a banned stimulant and was removed from the games. Ivan Tsikhan did not compete in the hammer throw as a re-test of his sample from the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he won silver, was positive.Hassan Hirt, Amine Laâlou, Marina Marghieva, Diego Palomeque, and defending 50 km walk champion Alex Schwazer were also suspended before taking part in their events.

Syrian hurdler Ghfran Almouhamad became the first track-and-field athlete to be suspended following a positive in-competition doping sample. Nadzeya Astapchuk was stripped of the women's shot put title after her sample came back positive for the banned anabolic agent metenolone. Karin Melis Mey was withdrawn before the long jump final when an earlier failed doping test was confirmed.