Just about everyone knows her name, and millions of young women want to play soccer like the great Mia, and bring home the gold for their own country. Acknowledged as the finest female soccer player ever, Mia Hamm is an inspiration and a leader. But who is Mia Hamm, really?.

             Mia Hamm was born on March 17, 1972 in Selma, Alabama. She grew up in a house with five brothers and sisters, and her parents would plan their vacations around her soccer schedule (Hruby C01) Her full name is Mariel Margaret Hamm, and she began playing and excelling at soccer at a young age. She played in high school for Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, where she was an NSCAA All-American. She also played at Notre Dame High School in Wichita Falls, Texas. At the age of fifteen, she played on the U.S. National Team, and was the youngest player ever to play on the team. The U.S. team won two Women's World Cups in 1991 and 1999, and two Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2004, while she was a member. She played forward for her collegiate team at the University of North Carolina, and led them to four NCAA titles. .

             She then went on to a professional soccer career with the Washington Freedom. In addition, "Hamm won the 1993-94 Honda Award for academic success, and she became the first soccer player to win the Honda Broderick Cup, which recognizes the outstanding collegiate woman athlete of the year" (Woolum 293). She won one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" awards in 1997, and when she retired from the U.S. national team in 2004, she held the international record for scoring-for both women and men-with 158 goals. She's won so many awards they'd take too many pages to list here. She created the Mia Hamm Foundation in 1999 to help support bone marrow transplants and research, largely because her brother Garrett passed away from complications related to aplastic anemia in 1997. The foundation also supports women in sports.