When Brandi Chastain’s game-winning penalty kick ripped into the net, the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team was not the only winner. Nor was the list of winners limited to all the young girls who were inspired by the team.

The win was a major victory for all women athletes in this country and the nation as a whole.

Never before have female athletes dominated national sports coverage as they did last week. More impressive is the fact that these athletes played soccer which has never been a big-time sport in America.

Nevertheless, over 90,000 people, the most ever for a women’s sporting event, packed the Rose Bowl in Pasadena Sunday to cheer on the team.

One of the most important things that the team did was make it more acceptable for women to be athletes in this country.

From an early age, boys are encouraged to participate in athletics and the ones who excel earn the respect of their peers.

Women may participate, but they do not receive the prestige of their male counterparts. Women may be looked down upon for being “mannish” if they are athletic.

For years in this country, women’s athletics have been seen as secondary to men’s. They have never gotten the media coverage of men’s athletics because, supposedly, not as many people were interested.

How many times will that theory be disproven for television execs to stop believing it?

One has only to remember back to this year’s ISU Women’s Basketball team.

That team charged all the way to the Elite Eight and was the hottest sporting ticket in town this spring.

But for all the talk of the good that the team has done for women, it is important to remember its most important contribution may be the way it transcended gender.

At no time was gender any kind of a qualifier for success.

The members of the U.S. Women’s World Cup team were not being recognized for being great women athletes; they were recognized for just being great athletes.