Speed skating at the 1960 Winter Olympics – Women's 500 metres

Women's 500 metres; at the VIII Olympic Winter Games
	Pictogram for Speed skating
Venue	Squaw Valley Olympic Skating Rink
Dates	February 20
Competitors	23 from 10 nations
Winning time	45.9
Medalists
	1964 →

Speed skating at the 1960 Winter Olympics
500 m	men	women
1000 m		women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
10000 m	men

The women's 500 metres speed skating event was part of the speed skating at the 1960 Winter Olympics programme. It was the first appearance of a women's event in Olympic speed skating. The competition was held on the Squaw Valley Olympic Skating Rink and for the first time at the Olympics on artificially frozen ice. It was held on Saturday, February 20, 1960.

Twenty-three speed skaters from ten nations competed.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Helga Haase United Team of Germany	Natalya Donchenko Soviet Union	Jeanne Ashworth United States

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1960 Winter Olympics.

World Record	45.6(*)	Tamara Rylova	Medeo (URS)	January 11, 1955
Olympic Record		-

(*) The record was set in a high altitude venue (more than 1000 metres above sea level) and on naturally frozen ice.

Helga Haase set the first Olympic record with 45.9 seconds.

Results

Helga Haase became the first ever female Olympic champion in speed skating.

Place	Speed skater	Time
1	Helga Haase (EUA)	45.9 OR
2	Natalya Donchenko (URS)	46.0
3	Jeanne Ashworth (USA)	46.1
4	Tamara Rylova (URS)	46.2
5	Hatsue Takamizawa (JPN)	46.6
6	Klara Guseva (URS)	46.8
6	Elwira Seroczyńska (POL)	46.8
8	Fumie Hama (JPN)	47.4
9	22x20px Doreen Ryan (CAN)	47.7
10	Kathy Mulholland (USA)	47.9
11	Iris Sihvonen (FIN)	48.7
12	Helena Pilejczyk (POL)	48.2
13	Françoise Lucas (FRA)	48.6
14	Eevi Huttunen (FIN)	48.6
15	Christina Scherling (SWE)	48.7
16	Jeanne Omelenchuk (USA)	49.3
17	22x20px Margaret Robb (CAN)	50.0
18	Sigrit Behrenz (EUA)	50.2
19	Yoshiko Takano (JPN)	50.3
20	Natascha Liebknecht (GER)	51.4
21	22x20px Kim Gyeong-Hoe (KOR)	53.2
22	22x20px Han Hye-Ja (KOR)	53.8
—	Elsa Einarsson (SWE)	DNF