The annals of sports are filled with great rivalries, usually between athletes on opposing sides, but sometimes the competition is intramural. This week, a special two-hour edition of "Yume wo Katachi ni" ("Making Shapes of Dreams"; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.) will look at famous rivalries in Japanese sports.
One is the monumental battle for high school baseball supremacy back in the 1990s that pitted pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, when he attended Yokohama Gakuen, against the legendary "PL nine" of PL Gakuen, probably the greatest baseball school in Japan. Another baseball rivalry discussed is the one between "elite" pitcher Suguru Egawa and the up-from-nowhere hurler Takashi Nishimoto, who both played for the Yomiuri Giants in the mid-'80s.
Then there's the rivalry between synchronized swimmers Mikako Kotani and Fumiko Okuno. As a rookie, Okuno idolized the older Kotani, but eventually they competed against each at the Barcelona Olympics.