ATHENS, Greece - The softball team got theirs, the soccer team got theirs, and now it’s time for the basketball team, the last of America’s female Olympic triumvirate, to get theirs.

It sounds so simple and looks that way, too. But don’t think it’s as easy as it appears, and don’t think it will last forever. The day is coming fast, as it has to men’s basketball, when the world catches up and all guarantees are rendered void.

In terms of talent, it’s happened already in soccer and basketball. The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team won its second Olympic gold in the farewell performance of the Fab Five — Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, Kristine Lilly, and Joy Fawcett, who sold women’s soccer to the nation and the world and won the first Olympics in 1996 and the first Women’s World Cup in 1999.

But the world has already caught up to the Americans in soccer. In the 2000 Sydney Games, Norway won gold, defeating the United States in the final match. Three years later, Germany knocked the Americans out of the second Women’s World Cup.

And Thursday night in Athens, Brazil fielded a team that was faster and had more scintillating individual stars than the Americans. It lost not because it was outclassed, but because it shot two open shots off the goal posts and faced a group that played a better team game.

Because of the skill of the Brazilians, it may have been Team USA’s most impressive win ever. Anyone who thinks it was preordained is selling them far too short.

American women’s basketball is reaching the same point. In the Olympics since 1980, they’ve failed to win the gold only once in an unboycotted Olympics. That was in 1992 in Barcelona, when the Unified Team from the remnants of the old Soviet Union won the gold-medal match.

The American women have dominated every competition since. But in Friday’s semifinal, they lined up against a Russian team that was bigger, younger, and, like the Brazilian soccer team, had great individual skills.

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The Americans won by four, 66-62, to advance to the gold-medal game, which they will be favored to win against Australia. The game was every bit as close as the score indicated, and the Russians had numerous chances to pull ahead. In the second quarter, they held the world’s greatest team scoreless for more than five minutes, but even then could never get closer than two points. And when they got that close, Team USA stopped them defensively, pounded the boards, and suddenly started making shots again.

At the end of the game, it could have gone either way. But Sheryl Swoopes, who had had a miserable day on offense, created two open jumpers for herself with one-on-one moves and canned them both. At the other end of the floor, she contributed to a big defensive stop. And at their own end, the American women kept wrenching offensive rebounds away from the Russians, preserving the win.

The Russians have a great center, 25-year-old Maria Stepanova, who is without a doubt that most athletic and talented big woman ever to play the game. She’s seven feet tall and, like Dirk Nowitzki, drains three-pointers with frightening consistency.

Also like Nowitzki she prefers not to go inside, where she towers over her opponents, preferring to pass and shoot jumpers.

Stepanova was asked why her team could come close, but couldn’t close the deal.

"Psychologically, we’re not ready to win," she said with brutal honesty.

Flip that statement around, and you have the last edge the Americans still hold — between the ears. Team USA — and this is true of softball, soccer and basketball —

doesn’t just hope to win, it expects to win.

"We came here to win the gold medal," said Tina Thompson. "Silver or bronze is a failure."

They have experienced players who have been through these wars time and again, people like Swoopes, who can have a bad game for 38 minutes, but, when the pressure is on, can hit every big shot. They know they will win because they’ve done it before.

But, one day soon, they won’t win. Another team will take them out, and the psychological edge will be gone. Regardless of what the men do in the basketball draw, they’ve already lost that advantage. They can still win gold, but it’s hard to strut when you’ve been beat in the last month by Italy, Puerto Rico and Lithuania.

The women haven’t been beaten by anyone. All three teams have gone through the draw undefeated. The softball team is by far the most dominant. Then comes the basketball team, which has to win one more game to cement their legacy. Last is the soccer team, which may already have seen its best days.

Enjoy them now, while you can. We may never see days like this again.

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