Mia Hamm

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"I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match." said the famous Mia Hamm. Mia was born the 17th of March 1972 in Selma Alabama. Mia Hamm played women's soccer for the USA national team and set many records that yet to be broken. She made a fundraiser for a charity called the Mia Hamm charity. Mia Hamm is a icon for many young soccer players to this day. She is a hero because she changed the sport we love and peoples, views on professional soccer athletes. Mia Hamm is my hero because at a young age she made me want to play soccer and strive to be a good athlete. One day, I want to be able to break all of her records.

Mia Hamm once said, "True champions aren't always the ones that win, but those with the most guts." This shows what type of person she is because she didn't care if she won or lost; it only mattered if she gave her one hundred percent effort. People always want to know "Why was Hamm so successful." The reason why she is successful is because she never quit, never gave anything less than her best, and she built off of her own failure when she made a mistake, she only worked 10 times harder in order to never do it again. "I believe it was in Italy that I really fell in love with the game," Hamm said to an athletic director in an interview. Italy was when it all happened for Hamm when she watched her first ever soccer match with her father. Mia Hamm is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women's World Cup winner. She has also set the most goals records in the women's world cup as well as scored the winning goal for America.

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The first reason Mia Hamm is a hero is that she writes children's books teaching kids young athletes that winning isn't everything and how you should never quit. Mia Hamm, best-selling author of Go for the Goal, tells a true-life-inspired story about the importance of part of a team. Mia Hamm in the book, talks about not only soccer decisions but life decisions because soccer is a "game in a game"(go for goal 1 Hamm). She is trying to help supporters not make the same mistakes as her and that shows leadership. Another reason Hamm is a hero is because she wants to be a role model for young women. This shows that she cares about people and it does work. If you would ask my sister, Dominique, she would say that she wouldn't be playing soccer at a Division 1 college if it wasn't for Mia Hamm and being able to look up to her at a young age. As well as teammates on the USA women's team said that they wouldn't have strived to play professional soccer.

"I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion."This is a quote by Mia Hamm that shows she's humble. This shows that Mia Hamm has common hero traits. She was never a quitter.This is revealed when she won U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award three times, in 1994, 1995, and 1996. This award is one of the hardest awards to win and she won it three times! She never gave up on her team and by doing so she scored goals that helped win titles which helped her get the reward. She was also the lead goal scorer for Women and Men's international goals

Hamm has made commercials for AT&T, Pert shampoo, Power Bars, and Nike, the latter of which even named a building in her honor at its headquarters in Oregon. Hamm also helped market a special edition soccer Barbie doll for Mattel. But possibly her most popular ad was the humorous spot for Gatorade in which she outperforms Michael Jordan in a number of sports from soccer and basketball to fencing and judo. These ads showed how she cared about her supporters and wants them to be happy this shows gratitude for all their support for her. Another way she contributed to her amazingness was by making a charity called the "Mia Hamm Charity". Which was made for her brother who died of bone marrow disease. She still tries to this day to help find the cure so that people that have bone marrow can survive unlike her brother. The reason I chose Mia Hamm was so that I could learn about a famous soccer player and what she did to help the world around her. For example, I didn't know about her charity or her inspirational quotes. Another reason was because my sister idolized her and her talent. "A winner is someone who gets up one more time then they are knocked down" This quote from Mia Hamm shows she holds heroic traits. This is why I picked Mia Hamm as my extraordinary hero. I believe Mia Hamm is a hero for not only the world of female athletes but for people everywhere.