Nine for IX

Season

2013

USA

6.3

TV-G

Series focuses on captivating stories of women in sports, told through the lens of female filmmakers. Nine for IX film topics include an intimate look at Pat Summitt, college sports' most successful coach ever; the largely unknown history of Katarina Witt and her link with East Germany's secret police; and the focus of sex in the marketing of female athletes.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Venus vs.

In 2005, Venus Williams joined Billy Jean King, Maria Sharapova, Chris Evert and others in the crusade to convince Wimbledon and the French Open to offer equal prizes to men and women. Venus was backed by Tony Blair after a poignant letter to the London Times which she called Wimbledon on the "wrong side of history." Over the next two years, Venus led the campaign for gender equality and in February 2007, both Wimbledon and the French Open changed their policies. That same year, Venus won Wimbledon, earning the same prize as Roger Federer.

S1 • E2

Pat XO

On April 18, 2012, Pat Summitt, college basketball's winning-est coach, stunned the sports world by resigning from Tennessee. As news of her early-onset Alzheimer's spread, the coach and her son, Tyler, set out to beat this challenge as they had every other-with grace, humor and, most of all, each other. Pat XO tells the remarkable story of this incomparable coach as it has never been told before, straight from the people who knew her best.

S1 • E3

Let Them Wear Towels

During the 1977 World Series, Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke was denied access to the players' locker room. After a very public fight, the door was opened, but the debate about female journalists in the male sanctum of the clubhouse remained. Through interviews with pioneering female sports writers, Let Them Wear Towels captures the raw behavior, humorous retaliation, angry lawsuits and remarkable resolve that went into the struggle for equal access for women reporters.

S1 • E4

No Limits

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.

S1 • E5

Swoopes

S1 • E6

The Diplomat

At the height of the Cold War, Katarina Witt became one of East Germany's most famous athletes, winning six European titles, five world championships and back-to-back Olympic gold medals. Known as "the most beautiful face of socialism," she earned unique benefits in East Germany but also constant surveillance from the Stasi, the notorious secret police force. The Diplomat chronicles Witt's courageous fight for her future at home, both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

S1 • E7

Runner

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.

S1 • E8

The '99ers

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. As told through the voice of a longtime team captain, Julie Foudy, we get an inside look at the strong team ethic and rare "do for each other" mentality that propelled them to victory that day and turned the team into a cultural touchstone. With unprecedented access, the film uses candid, behind-the-scenes footage shot by the players themselves during the tournament to present a unique portrait of the women who irrevocably changed the face of women's athletics. Reuniting key players from the 1999 squad and talking with current U.S. players as well, the film will examine how women's soccer - and women's sports as a whole - has changed since that epic day at the Rose Bowl.

S1 • E9

Branded

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 including Mary Lou Retton, Chris Evert, Lolo Jones, and Gabby Reece, "Branded" explores the question: can women's sports ever gain an equal footing with their male counterparts or will sex appeal always override achievement?