The athletics competition at the 2005 Mediterranean Games was held in the Mediterraneo Stadium in Almería, Spain from 29 June to 2 July 2005. France topped the medal tally with 10 golds and 30 medals overall, with host nation Italy coming in second with 9 golds and 26 medals overall.

At the 2001 Mediterranean Games, the athletics events were held in Tunis and Radès in Tunisia from 11 to 14 September 2001. Italy topped the medal table with 9 gold medals and 30 medals in total, shortly followed by France which also had 9 golds but 23 medals overall. Greece had the next greatest medal haul and the hosts Tunisia won 9 medals, two of which were gold. A total of 10 new Games records were set during the competition.