The history of organised sports in Odisha traces its origins to 1904, when Madhusudan Das formed the Orissa Sports Association. It was an athletic institution which organised the sports competitions for seasonal and annual provincial games. It eventually became the Orissa Athletics Association in 1909 and remained the primary sports association in the province until the formation of Orissa Olympic Association. 

The Odisha Olympic Association decided to empower sports associations such as cricket, football, hockey, tennis and badminton in 1961, thus paving the way for formation of independent sports bodies for the governance of sports in Odisha. 1988 the Orissa Amateur Athletics Association was becoming an affiliated unit of Odisha Olympic Association and Sri B.B. Das and Sri Asirbad Behera became as first President and Secretary of the Orissa Amateur Athletics Association.

The Odisha Athletics Association is managing athletics in Odisha and affiliated to the Athletics Federation of India and Odisha Olympic Association. Odisha Athletics Association has as many as 31 District Athletics Association and 3 Board units.