Mia Hamm

My hero was born with a disease called club foot. She overcame this by wearing a cast on her foot for years. Her family moved around and when she was five, she moved to Wichita, Texas. Mia had two parents and five other brothers and sisters. Mia Hamm is well known to people all over the world. She has also scored an all-time record for the most goals in women’s soccer. She changed the way the world looks at women’s soccer. Mia Hamm never quits, and she is a determined, strong leader.

When Mia Hamm was little she played a lot of sports, not including soccer. Not all of her teams were very good. Whenever they were losing, she would want to quit. Mia said, “I’d quit a lot of games because I hated losing so much. I thought if I’d quit before the game was over then I really didn’t lose.” After all of her quits on her teams, she found soccer and has not quit since. When Mia got asked to play on the US women’s soccer team she was only fifteen! When Mia and her team had their first World Cup, they did not win, they lost in the semi-finals to Norway. The whole team was disappointed in their loss, and they did not have a lot of hope for the upcoming soccer season. Hamm and the rest of her team had kept that loss as inspiration to win the next game. They got over the loss. The team said that there is always next World Cup to dominate. When it came to the 1999 World Cup they did dominate. They won against China in PK’s. The whole stadium was packed and full of China fans and USA fans.

When Mia was a child she idolized her older brother. Her brother had a rare bone disease. After Mia made it to the professionals, her brother's disease got very bad. He passed away. Mia was extremely mad and sad about his death. Imagine how much strength it takes to play an hour and thirty minute game after a close sibling's death. This is what Mia did. She had to play in a game. When she showed up to the field all of her teammates were wearing a black wrist band for remembrance of Hamm’s brother. When Mia ended up scoring in this game, she pointed up to the sky.

During the 1999 World Cup, Mia was being the very best she could do. She was being herself, strong. I would say she was being a leader. Her scoring record still stands as the most goals in women’s soccer. The US Women’s team lost one game in the World Cup. After their loss they started to lose their confidence, before their next game, Hamm wanted to get their confidence up. She did so and they won. The team laid all of their effort into the game against China, they tied. This usually means overtime, but for this game, they went into PK’s right away. They were tied after five people from each team, Lilly went up and scored the game-winning PK.

As you now know, this is my hero. She is the strongest player I know, mentally and physically, Hamm is a leader and determined. She is now retired with a family and happily living. Mia is a hero to many people, she is mine too. She changed women’s soccer for the US and many other people.