Mia Hamm

Mia Hamm (www.bing.com)

“I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.” My hero is Mia Hamm and that is one of my favorite quotes from her. Mia Hamm is my hero because I have always looked up to her. I have looked up to her because she helped her community, she had struggles in her life, but that didn’t stop her from reaching her goals, and she has made a big difference in my life. Those are all the reasons why I look up to Mia Hamm

Mia Hamm is my hero. She is an athlete who has gone out of her way to help her community and in her childhood she was always motivated to help other people. Mia Hamm was born on March 17, 1972 in Selma, Alabama and went to achieve the great honor of being on the United States women’s national soccer team. She is a daughter of an Airforce pilot. Mia moved with her family throughout her childhood. Her brother, Garrett, always encouraged her in sports. Mia went to high school at Lake Braddock Secondary school in Virginia and she went to college at the University of North Carolina. Mia married Christian Corry very young and that didn’t work out so they got divorced. Then Mia married a professional baseball player, Nomar Garciaparra in 2003. She retired in 2004 to start a family. Mia’s brother, Garrett, died of a disease called Aplastic Anemia. He died on April 16, 1997. The disease is a condition where bone marrow does not produce new blood cells. This can happen when the white blood cells attack the bone marrow. Patients who have this disease have lower amounts of all three blood cell types: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Mia knew she wanted to help kids who had this disease so she started a foundation called the “Mia Hamm Foundation”. She started this foundation because of her brother dying from this disease. That is how Mia Hamm has helped her community.

Mia Hamm is my hero is because she had struggles in her life but that didn’t stop her from accomplishing her goals. Mia Hamm loved to play soccer and she won many awards and medals. Mia Hamm won MVP five years in a row, soccer player of the year, and many more. Mia had struggles. She had an ankle injury that happened at the 1996 Olympic Games. The injury kept her from playing one match, but she was able to recover for the finals against China. She assisted the winning goal. She shot the ball and it rang off the crossbar and one of her teammates shot it in the back of the net. A final example of her heroic nature is that Mia Hamm is brave and athletic. She is brave because she played a game with a concussion when she was younger and is athletic because she is one of the best female athletes of all time. That is how Mia Hamm struggled to reach her goals

The last reason why Mia Hamm is my hero is because she has made a big difference in my life. Mia is a professional soccer player. She played for the United States woman’s national team for 17 years. Mia Hamm was the FIFA world player of the year 2001 and 2002. When Mia Hamm was 15, she was the youngest soccer player ever to play on the National team. When Mia Hamm was 19, she was the youngest team member in history to win the world cup. Mia Hamm was also elected to be the USA’s Athlete of the Year, MVP, and player of the year. Another example of this is that, after her brother died from a disease called Aplastic Anemia, Mia started the “Mia Hamm Foundation” to support patients and their families with this disease. A final example of this is she is a great soccer player and I want to be as good a player as her. Also because I want to help my community just like she did. That is why Mia Hamm has made a big difference in my life.

As you can see, my hero is Mia Hamm and I really look up to her. She has helped her community, she had struggles in her life but that didn’t stop her from reaching her goals, and she has made a big difference in my life. I would love to meet Mia Hamm. I would ask her all about her soccer career and how her foundation is running. “Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them."