At the 2001 East Asian Games, the athletics events were held in Osaka, Japan from 23 to 26 May 2001.

A team of Australian athletes took part in the competition but they were excluded from the medal tally.

In the third edition of the multi-sport event, 20 Games records were made over the four-day athletics competition.

Seventeen-year-old Liu Xiang set a new 110 metres hurdles record of 13.42 for the first gold medal of his career.

Kumiko Ikeda of Japan set personal bests in the long jump and 100 metres hurdles for a silver and bronze medal, respectively.