Biography on mia hamm

American soccer player (born 1972)

Mariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm (born March 17, 1972) is an American former professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Hailed as a soccer icon, she played as a forward for the United States national team from 1987 to 2004. Hamm was the face of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first professional women's soccer league in the United States, where she played for the Washington Freedom from 2001 to 2003. She played college soccer for the North Carolina Tar Heels and helped the team win four NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship titles.

Hamm competed in four FIFA Women's World Cups: the inaugural 1991 tournament in China, 1995 in Sweden, 1999 and 2003 in the United States. She led the team at three Olympic Games — 1996 in Atlanta (the first time women's soccer was played), 2000 in Sydney, and 2004 in Athens. At these seven international tournaments she played in 42 matches and scored 14 goals.

Hamm held the record for most international goals scored until 2013 and remains in third place as of 2023. She ranks fourth in the history of the U.S. team for international caps (276) and first for career assists (144). Hamm was named FIFA World Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002. She was chosen by Pelé as one of FIFA's 125 greatest living players in the FIFA 100, to celebrate the organization's 100th anniversary. Hamm was named U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year five years in a row, and won three ESPY awards including Soccer Player of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year. The Women's Sports Foundation named her Sportswoman of the Year in 1997 and 1999. She was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, Texas Sports Hall of Fame, North Carolina Soccer Hall of

Mariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm (born March 17, 1972) is an American former professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Hailed as a soccer icon, she played as a forward for the United States national team from 1987 to 2004. Hamm was the face of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first professional women's soccer league in the United States, where she played for the Washington Freedom from 2001 to 2003. She played college soccer for the North Carolina Tar Heels and helped the team win four NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship titles.

Hamm competed in four FIFA Women's World Cups: the inaugural 1991 tournament in China, 1995 in Sweden, 1999 and 2003 in the United States. She led the team at three Olympic Games — 1996 in Atlanta (the first time women's soccer was played), 2000 in Sydney, and 2004 in Athens. At these seven international tournaments she played in 42 matches and scored 14 goals.

Hamm held the record for most international goals scored until 2013 and remains in third place as of 2023. She ranks fourth in the history of the U.S. team for international caps (276) and first for career assists (144). Hamm was named FIFA World Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002. She was chosen by Pelé as one of FIFA's 125 greatest living playe

Mia Hamm (1972- ) was perhaps the world's greatest female soccer player of her era, scoring more goals in international competition than any other player, male or female. Hamm led three American teams to Olympic medals, and in the United States she helped bring women's soccer into the spotlight in the 1990s, becoming the most recognizable face of the sport and encouraging a generation of American girls to play the game.

Mia Hamm Mariel Margaret Hamm was born on March 17, 1972, in Selma, Dallas County, Alabama, to Bill and Stephanie Hamm. Her mother nicknamed her "Mia" after renowned ballerina Mia Slavenska, under whom she had studied. She was born with a partial club foot that required her to wear casts for two years until it was corrected. The family moved frequently due to her father's job as a U.S. Air Force pilot, and Mia fell in love with soccer when the family lived in Italy. The Hamms moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1977, where Mia began playing in soccer leagues and further developed her skills, spurred by encouragement from her older adopted brother, Garrett. At age 14, Hamm joined an Olympic development soccer team in Dallas and was noticed by Anson Dorrance, coach of the U.S. women's national team who also coached the women's soccer team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). In 1987, the 15-year-old Hamm became the youngest player ever to play for the U.S. national team.

Hamm graduated from Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, in 1989 and joined Dorrance at UNC. In her first two seasons at UNC as a forward she led the team to consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) titles, scoring more than 20 goals each season. She sat out the 1991 college season and instead returned to the U.S. women's national team, sharing in its 2-1 victory over Norway in the first ever Women's World Cup. In 1992 Hamm returned to UNC, where she helped lead the team to NCAA championships in 1992 and 1993. Hamm was named firs

After 17 years, two World Championships, two Olympic Gold Medals, and near unparalleled success as a marketing icon, Mia Hamm retired from professional soccer in 2004 as not only the best women’s soccer player in history but also as one of the most important and recognizable female figures in the history of sport.

Hailed by ESPN as the greatest female athlete of the past 40 years, Hamm was the youngest woman to ever appear in a match for the US Senior Squad at just 15 years old in 1987, and during her illustrious career playing for the national team shattered a litany of American records, most notably those for international goals (158) and assists (144). She starred on female sports’ biggest and most watched stages, guiding the United States to gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and at the now iconic 1999 World Cup on American soil, and in the process became one of the most marketable athletes, male or female, of her era. Indeed, her play at the ’96 Olympics in particular prompted Nike chairman Phil Knight to claim that Hamm was one of three athletes, along with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, to have “played at a level that added a new dimension to their games.” As further tribute to her impact, Knight named the largest building on the Nike campus after Hamm in 1999.

Prior to much of her national team success, Hamm starred on the collegiate level at the University of North Carolina, where she led the Tar Heels to four consecutive NCAA Championships and was three times named an All American. Among her other accolades, Hamm was twice awarded the ESPY for Female Athlete of the Year (1998 and ’99) and was twice named FIFA Women’s Player of the Year (2001 and ’02). She was one of only two women named by Pele to FIFA’s best 125 players in 2004 and in 2007 was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

In the years since her dominant run on the global stage as a player, Hamm has continued to serve as an inspiration to young girls looking to rise