Jere (avec accent) returns! Writing about women's sports (basketball focus): Once Banned, Women Now Center Stage at Games.

Women were not allowed to participate at the 1896 Summer Games in Athens, the first Olympics of the modern era. They were expected to contribute applause, not athletic skill. Not until 1984 were women permitted to run the Olympic marathon, in reefer-madness fear that they might grow old too soon with such exertion; or worse, they might grow a mustache.

Or their uterus would fall out, as if it were a transmission.

Now, women have become must-see TV at the Olympics, as well as the target viewing audience for NBC.