A champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching. – Anson Dorrance Head Women's Soccer Coach, University of North Carolina....you should probably remember that name if your a sports fan. He's won more National Championships as a coach (19) than all of the National Championships in the history of UConn. (3 Men's Soccer, 2 Field Hockey, 2 Men's Basketball and 6 Women's Basketball)
Dorrance sent that in a note to Mia Hamm after he saw her running sprints one morning in the off-season.
In reading about Mia Hamm in the book I am reading you get the sense that she is so good at soccer, yet so critical of herself, shy, ready to deflect success to her teammates. It's so different then what you think the personality of the best women's soccer player would have.
I think it's really ironic, that you could be so good, yet so hard on yourself, so critical, so lacking confidence. Being hard on yourself is good because it helps motivate you to keep working and getting better. Yet I got the sense that she was so hard on herself that sometimes she didn't want to try to succeed because she was afraid she'd fail. She didn't want to take a penalty kick in the world cup yet she's the best player in the world.
It's also really ironic because if an un-confident, shy soccer player read that they had something in common with Mia Hamm, they'd gain some confidence in themselves.
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