The athletics competition at the 2011 SEA Games was held from 12 to 16 November at the Jakabaring Stadium in Palembang, Indonesia. Over the five-day competition a total of 46 events were contested with 23 contests for each gender, matching the Olympic athletics program minus the men's 50 km race walk. Six SEA Games records were broken and twenty national records were surpassed.

The 2011 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 26th Southeast Asian Games, or the 26th SEA Games, and commonly known as Jakarta-Palembang 2011, was a Southeast Asian multi-sport event held from 11 to 22 November 2011 in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia. It was Indonesia's fourth time to host the Southeast Asian Games, and its first since 1997. Previously, Indonesia also hosted in 1979 and 1987. The capital city of Jakarta hosted all three of the previous Games prior to this. Palembang became the third SEA Games non-capital host city, after Chiang Mai (1995) and Nakhon Ratchasima (2007), both in Thailand. Around 5,965 athletes from 11 participating nations participated at the games which featured 545 events in 44 sports. The biggest competitor, sports, and events in Southeast Asian Games history.