March 17: Happy Birthday, Mia Hamm!

Happy birthday to Mia Hamm, "the most important athlete of the last 15 years". Named the FIFA World Player of the Year twice, Hamm has won two Olympic gold medals- and one silver- and, with her UNC teammates, four NCAA National Championships. Besides that, she and the U.S. women's national team placed first in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup and third in the 2003 World Cup. Furthermore, the iconic soccer player established the Mia Hamm Foundation after her brother died of aplastic anemia, a blood disease that can be cured via a bone marrow transplant. The charitable organization seeks to raise funds for, and awareness of, those people who need bone marrow or cord blood transplants.