At the 1994 Goodwill Games, the athletics events were held in July at the Petrovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Noureddine Morceli's winning time of 3:48.67 in the mile run was a game record and the fastest of 1994.

[2] In spite of appearances from prominent athletes such as Sergey Bubka, Irina Privalova and Carl Lewis, the stadium failed to reach much more than half of its 28,000 capacity over the five-day competition.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee won her third consecutive heptathlon title, having dominated the event since the games' inception.

[4] Two American men retained their titles won four years previously at the 1990 Goodwill Games: Michael Johnson in the 200 metres and Kenny Harrison in the triple jump.