Mia Hamm has always been around people who can fly. Her father is a U.S. Air Force pilot, and she is married to a Marine Corps flyer. On the soccer field Hamm has always been a supersonic jet. She was the youngest player ever on the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team and starred in the first ever World Women's Soccer Championship in 1991. Hamm also flew past her opponents at the University of North Carolina. In four years her teams lost only one game, and the University of North Carolina Tar Heels won four straight National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships. Hamm reached the pinnacle of her sport when she piloted the U.S. team to victory in the first ever women's soccer championship at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

Growing up

Ball of fire

Mariel Margaret Hamm was born March 17, 1972, in Selma, Alabama. Her dad...