The women's 200 metres sprint event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between September 3 and September 5.

[1] The winning margin was 0.45 seconds.

Held on September 3 from 3pm The top two runners in each of the six heats (blue), plus the next two fastest (pink) advanced to the semifinal round.

Heat one Heat two Heat three Heat four Heat five Heat six Held on September 5 from 3:40pm The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Heat one Heat two Held on September 5 at 5:10pm Key: OR = Olympic record Note: For the only time in Olympic sprint history, every finalist ran their fastest time for the event in the heats and their slowest time in the final, owing to rain, head winds and the schedule where the finalists had less than 90 minutes rest between the semi-final and final, instead of the usual entire day.