Mia Hamm

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.

She played at the 1987 U.S. Olympic Festival, the youngest player to play for the United States women's national soccer team.

As a new player, she often started as a forward but did not score a goal during her first year on the team.

Hamm spent a year at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, and helped the Lake Braddock soccer team win the 1989 state championships.

From 1989 to 1993, Hamm attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she helped the Tar Heels win four NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championships in five years.

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 red-shirted the 1991 season to focus on preparation for the inaugural 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup in China.

North Carolina lost one game of the 95 she played on the team.

She earned All-American honors, was named the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Player of the Year for three consecutive years, and was named ACC Female Athlete of the Year in 1993 and 1994.

Hamm was a member of the United States women's national college team that won a silver medal, being defeated by China in the final, at the 1993 Summer Universiade in Buffalo, New York.

She graduated from North Carolina in 1994 with the ACC records for goals (103), assists (72), and total points (278).

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.

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 Fame, and was the first woman inducted into the World Football Hall of Fame.

A co-owner of Los Angeles FC and Angel City FC, Hamm is also a global ambassador for FC Barcelona and is on the board of directors of Serie A club A.S. Roma.

Author of Go For the Goal: A Champion's Guide to Winning in Soccer and Life, Hamm has been featured in several films and television shows, including the HBO documentary, Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team.

Born in Selma, Alabama, Hamm was the fourth of six children of Bill and Stephanie Hamm.

She wore corrective shoes as a toddler after being born with a club foot.

Hamm spent her childhood on various United States Air Force bases around the world with her family.

While living in Florence, Italy, Hamm first played soccer, which was hugely popular there; her entire family quickly became involved in the sport.

At age five, then living in Wichita Falls, Texas, Hamm joined her first soccer team.

Her father coached Mia and her newly adopted brother, 8-year-old Garrett.

Hamm played sports from a young age and excelled as a football player on the boys' team at junior high school.

As a high school freshman and sophomore, she played soccer for Notre Dame Catholic High School in Wichita Falls.

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 was named FIFA World Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002.

In 2001, Hamm was a founding player in the first professional women's soccer league in the United States, the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), and played for the Washington Freedom from 2001 to 2003.

Throughout the league's history, Hamm was hailed as the star of the league and used heavily in marketing and promotion.

In a poll of 1,000 advertising executives conducted in 2001, she was voted "the most appealing female athlete", garnering almost twice as many votes as the runner-up Anna Kournikova.

During the league's inaugural match between the Freedom and Bay Area CyberRays at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., Hamm was fouled in the penalty area resulting in a penalty kick that her teammate Pretinha converted to mark the first goal scored in the league.

The Freedom won 1–0.

In addition to the 34,148 fans in attendance being greater than any MLS game that weekend, the Turner Network Television (TNT) broadcast reached 393,087 households: more than two MLS games broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2.

In 2003, she and Michael Jordan were named the ACC's Greatest Athletes of the conference's first fifty years.

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.

Hamm held the record for most international goals scored until 2013 and remains in third place as of 2023.

She ranks third in the history of the U.S. team for international caps (276) and first for career assists (144).