The women's K-2 500 metres event was a pairs kayaking event conducted as part of the Canoeing at the 1960 Summer Olympics program on Lake Albano. This event debuted at these Olympics though it is one of two events that has been at every ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships (the other is the men's K-4 1000 m event which debuted at the 1964 Games in Tokyo and ran until the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The 11 crews first raced in two heats on August 26. The top three finishers from each of the heats advanced directly to the final; the remaining five teams were relegated to the repechage.
| Heat 1 | |||||
| width=30 | 1. | width=60 | 1:55.93 | QF | |
| 2. | 1:59.01 | QF | |||
| 3. | 2:01.86 | QF | |||
| 4. | 2:05.40 | QR | |||
| 5. | 2:06.30 | QR | |||
| 6. | 2:12.20 | QR | |||
| Heat 2 | |||||
| 1. | 2:01.03 | QF | |||
| 2. | 2:03.98 | QF | |||
| 3. | 2:04.22 | QF | |||
| 4. | 2:04.32 | QR | |||
| 5. | 2:15.51 | QR |
The top three finishers in the repechage (raced on August 27) advanced to the final.
| Repechage | |||||
| width=30 | 1. | width=60 | 2:08.85 | QF | |
| 2. | 2:10.00 | QF | |||
| 3. | 2:10.17 | QF | |||
| 4. | 2:14.11 | ||||
| 5. | 2:21.13 |
The final was held on August 29.
| width=30 bgcolor=gold | width=60 | 1:54.76 | ||
| bgcolor=silver | 1:56.66 | |||
| 1:58.22 | ||||
| 4. | 1:59.03 | |||
| 5. | 2:01.36 | |||
| 6. | 2:01.68 | |||
| 7. | 2:02.47 | |||
| 8. | 2:02.76 | |||
| 9. | 2:02.85 |