Summer Athletics 2009 is a sports game that features a collection of Olympic Summer Games events. The game includes 28 sports divided into eight disciplines: Swimming, jumping, throwing, cycling, running, platform diving, archery and skeet shooting. The gameplay involves rhythmic motions to keep the athlete moving and quick time events to perform certain actions.
The game's career mode allows players to gain experience points after every event, which can be used to improve their character's stats. Players can also customize their character with a new editor that adjusts facial features. In addition, an arcade mode offers boosts to enhance performance for a short time.
The game features co-op relay races in both sprint and swimming events. When playing with another player, the input device is passed to the next player every time there's a handover on screen.