Everything about Mia Hamm totally explained
| cityofbirth =
Selma, Alabama
| countryofbirth =
U.S.
| height =
| position =
Forward
| years = 1989-1993
2001-2003
| clubs =
North Carolina Tar HeelsWashington Freedom
| caps(goals) =
Mia Hamm (born
Mariel Margaret Hamm on
March 17,
1972 in
Selma, Alabama) is a former
American soccer player. Playing for many years as a
forward for the
United States women's national soccer team, she scored more international goals in her career than any other player, male or female, in the history of the sport (158).
Hamm eventually became one of the most famous women athletes in the world, an iconic symbol of
women's sports, and an inspiration and role model to a generation of sports-minded girls. She was named the women's
FIFA World Player of the Year the first two times that award was given (in
2001 and
2002), and is listed as one of
FIFA's 125 best living players (as chosen by
Pelé). She retired from the sport in 2004, when she played her last game in the 2004 Fan Celebration Tour to commemorate the US's Women's National team's victory in the 2004 Olympics. In 2007, her first year of eligibility, she was selected for induction into the
National Soccer Hall of Fame by having 137 votes of the 141 ballots cast.
Women's Professional Soccer, a professional soccer league that plans to launch in 2009, features Hamm's silhouette in its logo.
Hamm was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame on
March 11,
2008.
She is the author of
Go For the Goal: A Champion's Guide to Winning in Soccer and Life (Harper Collins, 1999). She appeared in the
HBO documentary
.
Career
Early years
When she was little, Hamm was very athletic and fast.She played
football and
basketball in addition to soccer. She started organized soccer at age five, and at age 15 she played for
Notre Dame Catholic School's football team in
Wichita Falls, Texas. At 15, she settled on soccer as her primary athletic focus. She later moved to
northern Virginia to finish her high school career at
Lake Braddock Secondary School, living with her uncle until the rest of her family joined her a year later. At age fifteen, Hamm became the youngest player ever to play for the
United States national soccer team.
She attended the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,where she was nicknamed "Jordan" by her peers, in reference to another UNC athlete
Michael Jordan. She helped the
Tar Heels to four
NCAA women's championships in five years (she sat out the season of 1991 to concentrate on the
1991 FIFA Women's World Cup in China). North Carolina only lost one game in ninety five she played. She was an All-American and
Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year for her last three years. She also won
ACC Female Athlete of the Year in 1993 and 1994.
Women's National Team
In
1991, when the women's national team won the
FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time, Hamm became the youngest American woman to win a World Cup championship at the age of nineteen.
In
1993, she was a member of the U.S. women's national college team that played in the
1993 Summer Universiade and lost to
China, obtaining the silver medal. She was the leading scorer with six goals. She graduated from college with the all-time records for
her conference in goals with 103, assists with 72, and total points with 278.
On May 22, 1999 Hamm broke the all-time international goal record with her 108th goal in a game against
Brazil in
Orlando, Florida.
In
1999,
Nike named the largest building on their corporate campus after Hamm, and that same year she, and the rest of the women on the national team became world champions again by winning the
FIFA Women's World Cup. The final match surpassed the Atlanta Olympic final as the most-attended women's sports event, with over 90,000 filling the
Rose Bowl.
Also in 1999, Hamm began the Mia Hamm Foundation, dedicated to help with bone marrow research and to help women's sports programs progress. She was inspired to create her foundation by her adoptive brother and original athletic inspiration, Garrett, an
Amerasian who died of a bone marrow disease shortly after the 1996 Olympics. She had a friendly game the next day and all the members of her team wore a black armband in memory of her brother.
On
May 14,
2004, she announced her retirement effective after the
2004 Summer Olympics, expressing an interest in starting a family with her husband,
Nomar Garciaparra.
In March
2004, Hamm and former U.S.A. teammate
Michelle Akers were the only two women, and the only two Americans, named to the
FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living soccer players selected by
Pelé and commissioned by
FIFA for that organization's 100th anniversary.
In a friendly game against
Australia on
July 21,
2004, Hamm scored her 151th international goal; she's long held the record in that category for any player, male or female. This match also marked her 259th
international appearance; only her teammate
Kristine Lilly has played in more internationals.
She helped lead Team USA to a gold medal at the
2004 Summer Olympics and was also chosen by her fellow U.S. Olympians to carry the American flag at the Athens Closing Ceremonies. After the Olympics, Hamm and her teammates went on a "farewell tour" of the United States, which finished on
December 8,
2004 against
Mexico at the
Home Depot Center in
Carson, California. In the game, which the U.S. won 5-0, Hamm assisted on two of the goals. Hamm is one of three longtime national team members who announced their retirement from international play at the end of the tour; the others are longtime captain
Julie Foudy and
Joy Fawcett (Fawcett didn't play due to back surgery after the Olympics). Hamm retired with 158 international goals at age 32.
Personal life
Hamm was first married on
December 17 1994 to her college sweetheart Christian Corry, a
U.S. Marine Corps pilot, but their marriage was strained by long absences (his as a military aviator and hers in international soccer), and they divorced in
2001.
Hamm married then-
Boston Red Sox Shortstop, current
Los Angeles Dodger third baseman Nomar Garciaparra on
November 22,
2003 in
Goleta, California in a private ceremony. A few hundred guests attended. On
March 27,
2007 she gave birth to twin children, Grace Isabella and Ava Caroline. Though born five weeks early, each girl weighed over 5 pounds at birth. Twins run in both Hamm and Garciaparra's families.
Championships
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mia Hamm'.
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