MIA HAMM

(My friend drew this)

Mia Hamm is considered the best female soccer player to ever live. She has won countless awards including U.S. Soccer's Female Athlete of the Year for three consecutive years from 1994-96, becoming the first player honored three times. She is also the youngest person ever to play for the U.S. national team. She was chosen because of her obvious talent and passion for the game. In 1991, at the young age of 19, she became the youngest team member in history to win the World Cup. Then thirteen years later, still playing, she and teammate Michelle Akers got a spot on the FIFA’s (Federation Internationale de Football Association) list of the 125 greatest living soccer players. Not only were Mia and her teammate the only women to make the list, they were also the only Americans.

Mia faced a personal tragedy in 1997 when her brother, Garrett, died of a rare blood disorder, aplastic anemia. He had been fighting it since he was 16 and just before the 1996 Olympics, his condition suddenly worsened. After seeing his sister and her team beat China for the gold, he died shortly after. There was only one positive outcome to his death: the founding of the Mia Hamm Foundation. Mia launched it in 1999, so cures for bone marrow diseases could be found.

Currently living in Maine with her husband, Nomar Garoiaparra, and their twins, she is still a major idol to people around the world – even me. I was considering quitting soccer in second grade and she inspired me to continue playing. My dad wanted me to continue playing soccer so he showed me a Mia Hamm website and told me of all her accomplishments in sports. I agreed to continue playing and now I’m on my middle school soccer team and playing in a recreational soccer league. This summer I’m going to soccer camp to get even better and I’ve already started thinking about high school soccer. All of this would have never happened to me if it wasn’t for Mia Hamm. And who knows how many other second graders are out there wondering whether they should quit soccer or not and just so happen to stumble upon a Mia Hamm website…