Outliers By Mia Ham

Scoring a Successful Goal in Life
She places her hands on her knees and bends over in order to catch her breath. She looks out at the goal and the goalkeeper, then takes a quick glance at her teammates– her eyes scanning the stadium as she does. The vivid colors of the American and Chinese flags stand out no matter where she looks. The sound of silence engulfs her, and she can feel the audience’s eyes drilling holes into her. She takes her hands off her knees, stands up and looks down at the ball. The Chinese goalkeeper keeps her eyes focused on her opponent and the ball, making sure she does not look away for even a second. She takes a deep breath, and is overwhelmed by the smell of dirt and sweat. She looks down at the ball and then the goalie.
In Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, this is described as a “generational advantage” (Gladwell 67). A generational advantage is when the year one was born contributes in a big way to one’s success. Mia Hamm was born on March 17, 1972. Title 9, a law that states that no one should not be able to participate in and educational programs or activities because of their sex, was put into action on June 23, 1972, only a couple months after Hamm was born (Biography). Without this law, Hamm would have never been able to achieve her dreams of playing soccer professionally due to the fact that females were discriminated against it. She would have been able to play when she was little, however when she reached high school she would not have been able to continue the sport, because it would have only been a boys sport if it not for this law. Also, in 1985, the Women’s National Soccer Team was officially put into action, and Mia only had about 700 people to compete against to make the team because soccer was fairly new then (Title IX). Only 50,000 women in total were playing soccer in America in the 1980s, which is when Mia Hamm joined the national team (Title IX). Because Hamm already had unimaginable talent in the sport, it automatically made her stand out and assured her a spot on the team. Another advantage that she had was that soccer was fairly new in Texas and New Hampshire, which is where Hamm lived when she started playing soccer on a professional level, and since she was better than the few girls who played in those states, she was guaranteed a spot on the team. Because of her timely advantages, Hamm easily made it to the top in