The best of the Sydney Olympics was as good as it gets: stunning upsets, clutch performances, courageous and determined athletes gracious in both victory and defeat. Best of all, a large portion of that highlight reel has women in the starring roles.

Women have come a long way since they were first admitted to the Olympics 100 years ago, allowed to compete only in golf and tennis, sports that – at least as they were played at the time – did not require breaking a sweat. Over the years, other events were added with excruciating slowness and then only after overcoming boneheaded objections: the first women’s Olympic basketball game wasn’t played until 1976, the first women’s marathon wasn’t run until 1984; women weren’t allowed to play softball and soccer until 1996.

In Sydney, more than 40 percent of the competitors were women. Just as important was the quality of the competition they provided. The remarkable ironwoman Marion Jones won an unprecedented five medals in track and field. The Australian Cathy Freeman carried her country and her Aborigine people 400 meters to victory. Laura Wilkinson uncorked three impeccable dives in row when the favorites ahead of her faltered. The riveting gold-medal game between the United States and Norway explained why the world is crazy about soccer. The amazing comeback in softball, the startling contrast between the ferocious play in women’s basketball and the plodding men’s games. The list goes on.

The 1996 Atlanta Games are remembered for the ascent of women’s team sports. In Sydney, it was women’s individual sports, and none of that stuff requiring sparkly costumes and makeup. Two of the most closely watched additions to the women’s events this year were the pole vault and weightlifting, events requiring speed, strength and guts.

It has been 29 years since Title IX, made equal access to athletics the law for publicly funded schools and colleges. Although too many schools and colleges still seek ways to dodge the law, the benefits of athletic equality are real – U.S. softball’s Dot Richardson, a surgeon, says her experiences in competitive high school sports gave her the toughness needed for the competitive world of med school. The benefits also are quantifiable: numerous studies show that girls who participate in high school athletics are at significantly lower risk for pregnancy, smoking and suicide than their nonathletic classmates; some 80 percent of female top executives in Fortune 500 companies have high school or college athletics on their resumes.

The dire predictions that athletic mediocrity would be the result of greater inclusion of women in power sports have been laughed right out of the stadium. The new concern – exemplified by comparing the dignity with which the U.S. women’s 4-by-100 relay team accepted defeat and their bronze medals to the juvenile clowning with which the men’s team accepted their gold – is whether women’s athletics can resist the corrosive effect of fame and fortune. That may prove to be the toughest competition of all.