Atletismo Sudamericano (CONSUDATLE) — South American Athletics Confederation

What is CONSUDATLE?

Atletismo Sudamericano is the continental body for athletics in South America. World Athletics’ Area Association Rules list it under that name, with the abbreviation AS, as the Area Association for the South America Area; the older Spanish name, Confederación Sudamericana de Atletismo, and its acronym CONSUDATLE remain in use in histories of the body and in its social-media handle.^[2][3][11] Its sport is athletics as World Athletics defines it: track and field, road running, race walking, cross country and combined events.^[13]

On its legal form, World Athletics’ Constitution requires each Area Association to be “a separate legal entity properly constituted in accordance with the law applicable to a Country in its Area”.^[1] The confederation’s own statutes, which would state the form it takes and the country whose law governs it, could not be retrieved from its website, atletismosudamericano.org, which national federations such as the Confederação Brasileira de Atletismo and the Confederación Argentina de Atletismo link from their own sites.^[9][10]

What does CONSUDATLE govern or do?

World Athletics’ Constitution gives each Area Association “delegated authority from World Athletics to make decisions in their Area in accordance with this Constitution, the Rules and the Regulations” (Article 19), and sets its role in Article 20: to “promote and develop the sport of Athletics in its Area” and to “establish, manage and control Area Competitions”.^[1] The Area Association Rules add, in Rule 6.13, that “Each Area Association shall comply with all applicable Rules and Regulations”.^[2]

The confederation therefore writes no technical rules of its own for the sport: competitions in South America are held under World Athletics’ Competition Rules and Technical Rules, whose current edition on World Athletics’ rule-book page is dated 1 July 2026.^[5] Anti-doping in athletics is run by the Athletics Integrity Unit on World Athletics’ behalf. On 27 May 2024 the AIU announced a four-year ban that disqualified an athlete’s results from 18 July 2023, including results at “last year’s South American Outdoor Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil”.^[6]

When was CONSUDATLE founded and where is it based?

A 2018 history of the sport in South America published by Polideportivo News states that the Confederación Sudamericana de Atletismo “se formó en Buenos Aires el 24 de mayo de 1918”, with Argentina, Uruguay and Chile as its original members, and calls it “la confederación más antigua del mundo del atletismo”.^[3] The English-language Wikipedia, consulted as background, gives the same date and place.^[4] The founding date therefore rests on a single secondary source; the confederation’s own history and statutes could not be retrieved to confirm it.

The change of working name from CONSUDATLE to Atletismo Sudamericano could not be dated from a retrieved source. World Athletics’ Area Association Rules, approved on 29 November 2022 and in effect from 1 July 2023, already use the name Atletismo Sudamericano.^[2]

The seat and legal address are set by the statutes, which could not be retrieved, and no primary source for the seat was found.

How is CONSUDATLE recognised?

The recognising instrument is World Athletics’ Constitution, in the edition approved by Congress on 12 September 2025 and effective from 3 November 2025. Article 18 divides World Athletics into six Areas, of which “South America” is one; Article 19 provides that “Each Area shall have an Area Association”; Article 20 sets the Area Association’s role; and Article 21 gives it rights, including “its Area President being an ex officio Council Member provided that its Area President is Eligible in accordance with Article 65”.^[1] The Constitution does not name the Area Associations; the Area Association Rules do, and they list “Atletismo Sudamericano (AS)” for South America.^[2]

The recognition described above is World Athletics’; none of the sources cited records any International Olympic Committee recognition of the confederation itself. Panam Sports, the continental Olympic body, refers visitors to the Asociación de Confederaciones Deportivas Panamericanas (ACODEPA) for its confederations, and that site could not be retrieved, so any listing of a South American athletics body there could not be checked.^[12]

What does CONSUDATLE organise?

World Athletics’ Area Association Rules require each Area Association to “hold at least every two calendar years at least one senior Area Championships in a Country or Territory in the Area” (Rule 6.1.1).^[2] For South America that event is the South American Championships. According to Polideportivo News, the first was held in Montevideo in April 1919, with only Chile and Uruguay competing.^[3] The 54th edition (“LIV Campeonato Sudamericano de Atletismo de Mayores”) was held at the Estadio Justo Ernesto Román in Mar del Plata, Argentina, from 25 to 27 April 2025.^[7] The next senior edition’s host and dates could not be confirmed from a retrieved source.

South America also has an indoor championship: the Comité Olímpico de Panamá reported on 25 February 2025 on the “IV Campeonato Sudamericano Indoor” in Cochabamba, Bolivia.^[8] In the World Athletics Rankings rules in force from 1 January 2026, Area Senior Outdoor Championships are category “GL” and Area Senior Indoor Championships category “A”; Area U23 and Area U20 Championships both fall in category “C”.^[13]

Who are its members?

Under Article 19 of World Athletics’ Constitution, an Area Association’s members are “the Member Federations in the Area set out in the Appendix to this Constitution, as amended from time to time in accordance with this Constitution”.^[1] Membership therefore follows World Athletics’ allocation of national federations to the South America Area rather than a separate application to the confederation. Neither the confederation’s own federations page nor a legible copy of the Constitution’s appendix could be retrieved, and neither yields a dated member count.

Among the federations whose place in the South American structure is documented in retrieved sources are the Confederação Brasileira de Atletismo and the Confederación Argentina de Atletismo, both of which link to Atletismo Sudamericano from their sites,^[9][10] and Panama, whose Olympic committee reported its athletes’ participation at the 2025 South American Championships and the 2025 South American Indoor Championships.^[7][8]