Mia Hamm
1972-

Soccer player

An Early Star

Mariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm was born in Selma, Alabama, on 17 March 1972, one of six siblings. Although most people had not heard of her until the end of the 1990s, when Women's World Cup Soccer finally received media attention in the United States, she dominated women's soccer from the end of the 1980s. She made the U.S. National Team at age fifteen in 1987 and played for Notre Dame High School in Wichita Falls, Texas. As a three-time collegiate All-American and two-time winner of the prestigious Hermann Award as the best female college soccer player (1992 and 1993), while leading the University of North Carolina Tar Heels to four straight National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships (1989-1993), Hamm was a familiar name and powerful force in women's soccer. She set the NCAA single-season record for points scored with ninety-seven goals. In 1994 UNC retired her number. She was honored as U.S. Soccer's Female Athlete of the Year each year from 1994 to 1998. On 17 December 1994 she married Christian Corey.

World-Class Athlete

Hamm's career peaked as she became a media darling whose face and form were instantly recognizable after the U.S. women's soccer team won an Olympic gold medal in 1996. In Athens, Georgia, she played in the Olympic finals in front of 78,481 fans and a national television audience. Three years later, during the final game of the World Cup at the sold-out Rose Bowl, Hamm and her teammates, who were collectively voted Associated Press Female Athletes of the Year (1999), played before a television audience of nearly forty million. Even her commercials with Michael Jordan became classics and she has endorsed products ranging from Gatorade to Pert Plus shampoo, After the World Cup Championship she shared the spotlight with other talented and recognizable women athletes from the world of soccer, such as Brandi Chastain, Michelle Akers, Julie Foudy, and Shannon McMillan. Hamm was, however, still the star. She became the all-time leading scorer in international soccer when she made her 108th goal on 22 May 1999.

Changing Times

The timing of Hamm's rise to national and international prominence was partly the result of factors beyond her control and a precursor of events to come. When President Richard M. Nixon signed Title IX of the Federal Education Amendments into law in 1972, mandating full equality for women's intercollegiate athletics, he helped move women's sports beyond the limitations of traditional activities such as tennis and ice skating to a far wider group of sports, including volleyball, basketball, golf, swimming, cross-country, and soccer. Without Title IX of the Federal Education Amendments (1972), Hamm might still have become the premier women's soccer player of the decade, but few would have noticed. In addition to the new law, the growing popularity of soccer as a participation sport provided her with an enthusiastic audience of knowledgeable fans, most of whom were not born when Title IX was signed. When Hamm said, "I owe a huge debt … to the girls who scream for us at every game. We play for you," she was not merely referring to their status as fans but as athletes.

Sources:

Amy's Mia Hamm Page, Internet website.

SoccerTimes, Internet website.

Women's Soccer World Online, Internet website.

Mia Hamm (Mariel Margaret Hamm), 1972–, U.S. soccer player, b. Selma, Ala. The best all-around women's soccer player of her generation, she was perhaps most responsible for making women's soccer a significant American sport. A tireless forward, she played for the Univ. of North Carolina, leading the team to four NCAA titles (1989–90, 1992–93). At 15 she became the youngest person to play for the U.S. national soccer team, which won two Women's World Cups (1991, 1999) and two Olympic gold medals (1996, 2004) while she was a member. When she retired from the U.S. national team in 2004, she held the international record for scoring—for both women and men—with 158 goals. She also played in the short-lived Women's United Soccer Association professional league (2001–3) for the Washington Freedom.