Objective This article examines determinants of women's participation and performance in the Olympics. Methods The authors analyze total and sport‐specific data on female Olympic athletic participation and medaling at the Summer Games between 1960 and 2012, controlling for a number of country‐level socioeconomic variables. Results Olympic outcomes are generated by a complex process involving the socioeconomic status of women and, more weakly, societal attitudes. Medal performance is affected by large‐scale boycotts. But the historical record for women's medal achievement is utterly distorted by the doping program in the former East Germany. At its peak, the program was responsible for 17 percent of the medals awarded to women, equivalent to the medal hauls of the Soviet or American team in 1972. Conclusion Heightened success and performance for women at the Olympics is a reflection of environments more conductive to women's general success in education, the labor force, and society.