LONDON -- Alex Morgan’s 123rd-minute header against Canada at Old Trafford — one of the most dramatic moments at these Olympics — did more than just clinch a spot for the United States in the women’s gold-medal soccer game. It served as an exclamation point to 10 days of unprecedented dominance by American female athletes and an affirmation on the 40th anniversary of Title IX that women have made great strides in sports.

Less than 24 hours after the soccer thriller, the U.S. women’s basketball team routed Canada 91-48 in the quarterfinals, extending the team’s win streak to 39 games over the past 20 years. That is not a typo. Exactly 20 years ago to the day (July 7, 1992), the United States won the bronze-medal game at the Barcelona Olympics and has won every game since. If it beats Australia in Thursday’s semifinal, the United States would play for its fifth consecutive gold medal on Saturday.

Canadian coach Allison McNeill said of Team USA: “The American women’s basketball team may just be the most dominant team in team sports.”

A few hours after the basketball team’s victory Tuesday, beach volleyball players Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor clinched a spot in the gold-medal match. Also, the world’s U.S. women’s volleyball team, ranked No. 1 in the world, was heavily favored to beat the Dominican Republic in a quarterfinal after going 5-0 in group play.

As of early Tuesday evening, the U.S. women had outperformed the U.S. men, winning 20 gold medals to the men’s 10, and 36 overall to 29.

“There is no doubt in anybody’s mind this is a direct function of our having the strongest sports law in the world as far as gender equity,” said Donna Lopiano, the former president of the Women’s Sports Foundation and now a consultant with Sports Management Resources. “And we haven’t seen the end of it. It started with individual sports, then the team sports kicked in at the ’96 Olympics, and next you’re going to see us winning in traditional men’s sports such as wrestling, boxing and weightlifting. It’s a domino effect.

“We are way ahead of the world in the rights of women to compete, and young girls now are making demands because of the images they are seeing through global media, images like what we are witnessing at these Olympics.”

Michael Phelps got most of the publicity at the swimming pool, and deservedly so as the most decorated Olympian of all time.

But a story that didn’t get as much attention was the historic performance by American female swimmers. Led by teenagers Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky, the women had their most successful meet since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which were boycotted by many of the top Eastern European swimmers. This women’s swimming team won 14 medals overall (eight gold), a huge improvement over the two it won in Beijing and three in Athens. The team even had a female coach for the first time, University of California’s Teri McKeever.

At the gymnastics venue, the American pixies proved to be the most successful U.S. team in history. Gabby Douglas won gold in the all-around competition, and also joined forces with Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross to win the team gold medal. Their combined score of 183.595 was more than five points better than silver medalist Russia, a huge gap by gymnastics standards. They finished first in the vault, beam and floor exercise.