Darron Cummings, Associated Press Alaina Berube, top, and Sara McMann were among the women wrestling for Olympic spots in Indianapolis. Click photo for larger image. America's Athletes: Patricia Miranda Greece's Games: The Heraea Games Local Hopefuls: An update on athletes from the region aiming for Athens Olympics: Key dates Olympics Notebook: USADA has no evidence

INDIANAPOLIS -- As a child in Manteca, Calif., Patricia Miranda was the oddball. The freak. The girl who wanted to wrestle.

The girl who was so determined to wrestle that she did so against boys, despite a wrestler's grasp of the imbalance involved.

The girl who, at times, would deny her own sex to keep moving forward.

"Competing in high school and college, I never thought of myself as a female," she said at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials this past weekend in the RCA Dome. "In fact, I took down all the mirrors so not to use it as an excuse of why I didn't wrestle well. However, after meeting other women who train as hard and are as dedicated to the sport as I am, I do like to be recognized as a female."

Sara Fulp-Allen experienced much the same in her early wrestling years in San Francisco.

"It can help you in a way to train against men because it pushes you. At the same time, if you make a mistake or don't succeed, you have a tendency not to be hard on yourself," she said. "I wanted more than that. I wanted to go over every little mistake. I wanted to expect to win. I wished there were other girls who wanted the same thing."

She no longer has to look far.

Neither do females in pretty much any sport at this point.

That much is evident at high schools and colleges across the United States, where female participation in athletics rivals or exceeds that of the males. And, even though the rest of the world generally has lagged behind, it is becoming evident in the Olympics.

Of the 28 sports and 37 disciplines on the slate for Athens, the only ones in which women will not participate are boxing and the steeplechase, a century-old Olympic event in which the runner must clear four hurdles and a water hazard. Women also participate not in baseball, of course, but in softball.

Most striking, perhaps, the only new women's sport will be wrestling, along with the discipline of saber added to fencing. Compare that to 2000, when eight women's sports were added: Taekwondo, hammer throw, modern pentathlon, triathlon, pole vault, trampoline, water polo and weightlifting. Or to Atlanta in 1996, when women finally joined the Olympic stage in soccer, the world's most popular game.

Clearly, the boom is over, the novelty diminished.

"It's about time," Fulp-Allen said. "But you know what? It's also a good time. Speaking just for wrestling, I know this might not have worked for us a few years ago. There just weren't enough of us to make it respectable."

The International Olympic Committee has no Title IX, no stipulation that men and women must be represented equally. An Olympic sport, according to the IOC, must be "widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents, and by women in at least 40 countries and on three continents." That does allow for a lower standard of participation for women, but it also takes into consideration that women in many parts of the world are not afforded the same chance -- be it because of culture, economics or both -- to compete at an elite athletic level.

Change appears to be coming, though, even to those places least willing or able to effect it. That can be best measured through the mounting international parity in sports the United States was dominating only a decade ago.

"The team I like to look at is Mexico," U.S. star Mia Hamm said. "For years, they lacked the organization, the resources to do what it takes to succeed on the top level. We remember the way they used to look at us. They saw the way we were doing things, how seriously we were taking it. And now, they've got a real program. They have some real talent."

The same can be said of softball, an all-American sport that other nations' federations are taking more seriously.

"We're not in a position anymore where we can just show up and think we're going to win," softball outfielder Kelly Kretschman said. "The bar is set higher everywhere. Believe me: The rest of the world is catching up."

Even in wrestling.

As the man on the loudspeaker boomed repeatedly over the weekend at the RCA Dome, wrestling is "the world's oldest sport!" It dates to Greece's ancient Olympics, and it has carried on in a manner not significantly altered since then. That included a largely exclusionary attitude toward women even after other sports had torn down such walls.

Wrestling's walls are coming down, as well. In 1990, only 112 girls were competing in U.S. high schools. Last year, there were 3,769. There are NCAA programs, national and international tournaments, even a bit of fame for the more prominent athletes such as Miranda, the champion in her class and outstanding wrestler at the 2003 World Cup.

Now, for the first time, there is a women's team -- including Miranda -- going to the Olympics.

Big deal?

Not so much anymore, and certainly not for the United States.

In Atlanta, women accounted for 13 of the 44 American gold medals. In Sydney, that figure rose to 18, nearly half of the nation's total of 40. Athens might well put the women over the top.

"I have a message for the guys," U.S. Olympic Committee president Bill Martin said. "Watch out because the girls are kicking our butts."