Mia Hamm is famous because she one of the best female soccer players of all time. The characteristics that helped make Mia Hamm successful were her natural talent at the sport of soccer, being hard working and driven, and being dedicated to her sport. These characteristics not only made her a famous player, but made her a role model for young girls like me.
I learned that soccer did not used to be a sport played by girls in the United States. When Mia Hamm first started playing soccer, she often had to play on boys’ teams because there wasn’t a girls’ team.
Now, though, soccer has become much more popular in the United States and there are teams for both boys and girls. The experiences that made Mia Hamm great were: winning the World Cup Championship; Winning a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics; Winning the silver medal in the Sydney Olympics 4 years later.
No, I don’t really feel that differently after reading this book. Before reading the book, I knew that Mia Hamm was a famous soccer player. And to be a famous soccer player, you have to be really good. So I wasn’t surprised by all of her achievements. However, I still learned a lot because I did not know all of these facts and I didn’t know just how many big games and titles she won.
The part of Mia Hamm’s life that I admire the most is that even though she moved around a lot, she never seemed to get upset about it. She always managed to keep a positive attitude and find another team to join. The five things I learned about Mia Hamm are: She was on 15 different soccer teams. She played in 2 Olympics. She had the assist to the winning goal for the Women’s World Cup. She graduated from college and got married right after graduation (but later divorced). He brother died of a rare disease the year after she won the Gold in the Olympics.
Four words that I learned from this book are: Inaugural – the first of something. Mandatory – something you are required to do. Repugnant – something you find distasteful. Ambivalent – something that you do not care about strongly Summary I read the book On the Field with Mia Hamm by Matt Christopher.
The author writes about the life of female soccer star Mia Hamm and starts from the time she first discovered soccer as a child, all the way through her Olympic and professional career. Mia Hamm first played with a soccer ball when she learned to walk. Her family didn’t know anything about the sport, but they were living in Italy at the time, and soccer is the national sport there. Because her father was in the military, the Hamm family moved around a lot. By the time she was 5, Mia was on her fist soccer team in Texas and well on her way to becoming a soccer star.
By age 13, Mia was named the best female junior soccer player in the state of Texas. Only two years later, at age 15, Mia Hamm was named to the U. S. National Team. She was the youngest player ever to be rostered on a national team. Mia’s family moved again, this time to Virginia. Sometimes Mia lived with her family, and sometimes she had to stay with her team, even though she was a minor. It was difficult for her to manage her family life with her soccer career. But she loved soccer so much that she was willing to give up just about anything to play.
Eventually Mia graduated High School (in Kansas, this time), and went to college on a full soccer scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While there, she lead her team to four NCAA championships. Because of her soccer career, Mia left the University for a while to play on the World Cup team. After the World Cup season ended, she went back and finished college and graduated. A few years after graduation, Mia Hamm was named to the United States Olympic team where she and her teammates made history and won the Gold Medal at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.
Hamm continued to play soccer for the United States after the Olympics. She played in several World Cup tournaments, leading the U. S. to a World Cup Championship in the 1999 and then to another Olympics in 2000 in Australia where the U. S. took the silver medal. After the Olympics, Hamm joined the first professional women’s soccer league, the Women’s United Soccer Association. She played forward for the Washington Freedom. I really liked this book because it is about one of my heroes and role model, Mia Hamm.
