Nine for IX

Venus vs. is the first episode of the 2013 documentary TV series Nine for IX.

Lisa Olson was just trying to do her job as a reporter for the Boston Herald in 1990 when a group of New England Patriot players sexually harassed her in their locker room. Her lawsuit against the team ignited a storm of threats and she ultimately left her job and the U.S. to escape the torment. The story touched off a national debate about the presence of female journalists in the male sanctum of the clubhouse.

Suffering from scoliosis as a teenager, Audrey Mestre found freedom in the ocean. Years later, she discovered another reason to love the water: the elusive, often raucous free diver Pipin Ferreras. As Mestre follows Ferreras's almost spiritual quest to push his limits underwater, she moves from supporter to ardent free diver to world-class competitor. Then a challenge from a rival pushes the couple to the brink of what is possible, both above and below the surface.

Sheryl Swoopes has famously been labeled the female Michael Jordan. Actually, she's far more interesting. On the court, she was nearly as dominant as Jordan, winning a national championship with Texas Tech, three Olympic gold medals, three MVP awards and four consecutive championships with the Houston Comets of the WNBA, the league she helped start. She even had a Nike shoe named after her, the Air Swoopes. Off the court, she gave birth to her son, Jordan, in the middle of her first WNBA championship season. Later, she divorced her high school sweetheart and became the highest-profile athlete in her sport to declare she was gay. She has struggled with love, family, money and lack of recognition, but she has never lost her spirit. In this portrait, you will meet someone who is not your everyday superstar, a woman who has defied a multitude of labels, including old-- in August 2011, Swoopes, at 40, hit a buzzer-beater to end the Tulsa Shock's 20-game losing streak.

At the height of the Cold War, Katarina Witt became one of East Germany's most famous athletes. Trained in an ice rink that gave rise to socialist heroes, Witt dominated her field by winning six European skating titles, five world championships and back-to-back Olympic gold medals, becoming arguably the world's best figure skater. Known as "the most beautiful face of socialism," her success gave her a unique status in East Germany. It also triggered constant surveillance by the Stasi, East Germany's notorious secret police force. This film chronicles how Witt fought for her future in socialist East Germany, faced the great changes that occurred after the fall of the Berlin wall and ultimately ended up both a beneficiary and victim of the East German regime.

Mary Decker obliterated opponents and records with blazing speed and a starving hunger to win. She dominated her sport, holding US records in every distance from 800 to 10,000 meters, and she did it all without the Olympics. She was too young in '72, hurt in '76 and shut out by the U.S. boycott in '80. As Sports Illustrated's cover Sportswoman of the Year in 1983, she was ready: 1984 was the target, with the Olympics in LA and her skills at their 25 year-old peak. But the story leads to a single shocking moment in the 1984 Olympics, with Mary writhing on the ground in physical pain and emotional heartbreak with the whole world watching.

The world of women's sports was kicked upside down on July 10, 1999. Before a sold-out crowd of more than 90,000 at the Rose Bowl and an estimated 40 million Americans watching on television, the women's soccer team reached a cultural and athletic pinnacle with its penalty-kick shoot-out victory over China to win the Women's World Cup. These players were more than the pony-tailed poster girls celebrated by mainstream media.

Sports is supposed to be the ultimate level playing field, but in the media and on Madison Avenue, sometimes looks matter more than accomplishments. This film explores the double standard placed on female athletes to be the best players on the field and the sexiest off of it. Through stories of the women who have faced and tackled this question in very different ways, "Branded" explores the question: can women's sports ever gain an equal footing with their male counterparts or will sex appeal always override achievement?