American women were not exactly a powerhouse at the 1972 Summer Olympics: They won just 23 medals, compared with 71 for the U.S. men. The women were absent from the medal podium in gymnastics. They didn't win a single gold in track and field, managing just one silver and two bronze.But something else happened that year. The U.S. Congress passed Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in education programs receiving federal money. Sports wasn't the focus of Title IX. In fact, quite the opposite."Sports was quietly slipped into the law, and no one seemed to pay much attention," said Deborah Larkin, CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation, which works to improve opportunities for female athletes. "The thinking was that not many girls play sports and not many would want to."Today, Title IX is credited with revolutionizing women's sports, and the Olympics offer one measure of how dramatic that transformation has been.At the 2012 Olympics in London, U.S. women won more medals than American men
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