Mia Hamm Biography
Mia Hamm is an American retired 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 women’s national soccer team from 1987–2004. Hamm was the face of the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA).
She played for the Washington Freedom from 2001–2003. She played college soccer for the North Carolina Tar Heels women’s soccer team and helped the team win four consecutive NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship titles.
Mia Hamm Age
Mariel Margaret -Garciaparra Hamm was born on March 17, 1972, in Selma, Alabama. As of 2019, she is 42 years old. She celebrates her birthday on March 15th every year.
Mia Hamm, Member Of A-Team
At Texas, Mia joined a soccer team for the first time. Her father coached her together with adopted brother Garrett. While she was at junior high school, she excelled as a football player in the boys’ team.
She also played soccer for the Notre Dame Catholic High School in Texas. In 1987, at the age of 15, she debuted for the US women’s national soccer team and played at the US Olympic Festival.
Mia Hamm was then the youngest player in the US women’s national soccer team. When she attended the Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, she helped its soccer team win the 1989 state championships.
Mia Hamm attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a scholarship from 1989 to 1994. Helped Tar Heels women’s soccer team win four NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championships.
Mia Hamm FIFA Women’s World Cup
In 1991, when Mia Hamm played at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in China, she was just 19 years old and was the youngest player in the team. In the first match, she scored the game-winning goal and led the team to victory.
They won the semi-final against Germany and took the first World Cup championship title after defeating Norway in the final. In her second World Cup tournament in 1995, she scored a goal, but the match against China was a draw.
The US team won the second match against Denmark. They defeated Japan in the quarter-final but lost to Norway in the semi-finals. During the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the first Olympic tournament to include women’s soccer.
The US team won against Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. During the final match against China, Hamm was injured and taken out of the field in the final minute. Nonetheless, the US team won its first Olympic gold medal.
In 1999, with her 108th goal for the US team, she set a record for scoring most international goals, breaking the record set by Italian player Elisabetta Vignotto. Hamm held the record till June 2013, when American player Abby Wambach broke it.During the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, she scored a goal against Norway and the US team won the game. They defeated Nigeria, and in the semi-finals.Hamm scored the game-winning goal against Brazil, which helped her to set a record for most goals scored in international play by a woman or man. However, the US team was defeated by Norway in the final, and they earned the silver medal.In 2001, she played in the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first women’s soccer league in the US, as a founding player. From 2001-03, she played for the Washington Freedom. Throughout the league’s history, she was acclaimed as the star of the league.In July 2004, during a game against Australia, she scored her 151st international goal and set a record for most international goals scored by any player in the world, male or female. She held the record till 2013.
Mia Hamm Honours
Hamm was named Sportswoman of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation in 1997 and 1999. In June 1999, Nike named the largest building on its corporate campus after Hamm.
In December 2000, Hamm was named one of the top three female soccer players of the twentieth century in the FIFA Female Player of the Century Award, finishing behind only Sun Wen and compatriot Michelle Akers.
In March 2004, Hamm and former U.S. teammate Michelle Akers were the only two women and Americans named to the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living soccer players, selected by Pelé and commissioned by FIFA for the organization’s 100th anniversary.
Other accolades include being elected U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year five years in a row from 1994 to 1998 and winning three ESPY awards including Soccer Player of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year.
In 2006 Hamm was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, followed by the Texas Sports Hall of Fame on March 11, 2008. In 2007, during her first year of eligibility, Hamm was selected for induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
In 2008, an image of her silhouette was used in the logo for the second professional women’s soccer league in the United States: Women’s Professional Soccer. ESPN named her the greatest female athlete in 2012.
In 2013, Hamm became the first woman inducted into the World Football Hall of Fame, located in Pachuca, Mexico. She was named to U.S. Soccer’s USWNT All-Time Best XI in December 2013.
In 2014, Hamm was named one of ESPNW’s Impact 25; she was also the recipient of the Golden Foot Legends Award. For their first match of March 2019,
The women of the United States women’s national soccer team each wore a jersey with the name of a woman they were honored on the back; Samantha Mewis chose the name of Ham
Mia Hamm Accomplishments
Mia Hamm was a game of phenomenal soccer who made women’s soccer more popular. Hamm is the best to know for scoring the most international goals over her career than any other male or female.
She played with the United States Women’s national soccer team for 17 years and was named FIFA player of the year for both 2001 and 2002.Notable Alumni: University Of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
Mia Hamm Family/Siblings
Throughout her childhood, she and her family stayed at various the United States Air Force bases around the world. She has five siblings. She played soccer for the first time when she and her family moved to Florence, Italy.
Mia 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. Siblings: Garrett Hamm Children: Ava Caroline Garciaparra, Garrett Garciaparra, Grace Isabella Garciaparra.
Mia Hamm Husband
Hamm was first married to her college sweetheart Christiaan Corry, a United States Marine Corps helicopter pilot; they divorced in 2001 after being married six years.
She married then-Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra on November 22, 2003, in Goleta, California, in a ceremony attended by a few hundred guests.
On March 27, 2007, Hamm gave birth to twin girls, Grace Isabella, and Ava Caroline. Though born five weeks early, each girl weighed over 5 pounds (2.3 kg) at birth. The couple had a son, named Garrett Anthony, in January 2012.
Mia Hamm Quotes
♦ I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match. ♦ There are always new, grander challenges to confront, and a true winner will embrace each one.
♦ I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.
♦ Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them ♦ Sports have become increasingly more specialized, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be fun.
♦ I could sit there and eat pasta all day long and not worry about it when I was younger, and now I really have to focus on making sure I set a good example for my kids.
♦ Being a good teammate is when you try to sprint down a ball that everyone thinks is going out of bounds. But you go after it anyways and you get it. ♦ I don’t like to play rough, but I will if I have to.
Mia Hamm Height
Height: 5’5″ (165 cm), 5’5″.w3e are currently reviewing other body measurements we will update soon.
Mia Hamm Net worth
Mia Hamm Net Worth: Mia Hamm is a former American professional soccer player who has a net worth of $10 million dollars. As of 2019, her net worth combined with her assets as well as brands endorsed her total net worth to be $ 10 million.
Her annual salary in 2009 was estimated to be over $ 93,000. A sports icon like he has been endorsed by several brands due to her marketable personality. Her endorsement deals were with brands like Gatorade, Nike, Pepsi, Nabisco, Earthgrains, Powerbar, etc to name a few.
It was revealed that she purchased a home at the Manhattan Beach in New York that was reported to have cost around $2200,000.
Mia Hamm Today/2019 Interview
The world’s most famous female soccer player, Mia Hamm, has traded her cleats for a new life as wife and mom of 3 small children. In this exclusive interview, the two-time World Cup and Olympic champ talks about the challenges of parenting and staying healthy off the field…
The Olympic champion is married to retired baseball all-star Nomar Garciaparra and the mother of twin girls, Grace and Ava, 9, and 4-year-old Garrett. She has found that no amount of practice could have prepared her for her current task: keeping her kids healthy and happy.
“Life off the field has been just as demanding and hectic as training for the Olympics or world titles,” Hamm says. Now she runs the Mia Hamm Foundation, which supports organized sports for girls and helps families in need of bone marrow and cord blood transplants.
Her adopted brother, Garrett, died of complications from the blood disease aplastic anemia in 1997. She’s also co-founder of Athletes for Hope, a group that helps professional athletes use their celebrity in philanthropic ways.
Hamm is the author of an inspirational autobiography, Go for the Goal: A Champion’s Guide to Winning in Soccer and Life(HarperCollins/It Books), as well as Winners Never Quit! (HarperCollins), a children’s book about sportsmanship and teamwork.
Still, the roles Hamm cherishes most are wife and mother. “I’ve achieved many wonderful goals, but my family is what I’m most proud of,” she says. “Having a happy, healthy family is everything.”
In this exclusive interview, Hamm reveals what she’s teaching her children about sports and life, and how she supports her family’s health by caring for her own.
You displayed unwavering confidence on the soccer field. Are you that confident as a parent?On the field, it’s easy to identify that you’re doing things right because you score a goal or make an assist. But parenting is one of those things that evolves every day.
I definitely sit there and think, Am I doing this right? Why did I do that? Why don’t I have more patience? That self-doubt is part of parenting. I’m trying to learn and grow every day to be a better mom.
Have you found parenting books helpful?
You can read as many books as you like, but they’re just guides. Every child and parent is different. I learn from my [children]. You have to find the best way for yourself to be the parent your child needs. And it sometimes helps to take a step back and regroup.
How do you do that?I exercise every day. It’s very important for moms to have time for themselves so they can recharge and get perspective.
What was the toughest part about switching from full-time athlete to full-time mom?With regard to my personal health, I don’t have the same access to resources as I had while I was playing.
When I was on the national team, I could go to the trainer or physical therapist if I needed something or had a question. I had complete access to a doctor, and if something wasn’t right,
I could walk in and say, “Hey what’s going on?” The doctor could take care of whatever the problem was or send me to someone who could.
What happens now?
I’m just like every other person. I wonder what to do and whom I should talk to about a symptom or health situation.
I used to be a bit reactive about health, rather than being proactive. Now I’m in charge of making sure I’m up-to-date on vaccines and I’m doing everything I can to stay healthy.
What are some proactive steps you’ve taken?I have routine physicals and screenings. I talk to my doctors a lot, not just when I’m not feeling well.
I spend more than the usual five minutes people typically get with a doctor. I want to make sure I discuss a variety of topics, like how to prevent illness and maintain good health.
As moms, we tend to forget that we need to mother ourselves too. It’s important for women to take time for themselves and their own health. I make sure I not only maintain my girls’ health but stay healthy myself because I’m around them. It’s a way to protect my family too.
Why is it so important for young girls to play sports?
I believe the more opportunities there are for girls to play sports, the better their health and well-being.
Sports build self-esteem and responsibility. It’s good for girls to be part of a team and feel like they belong somewhere.
What got you hooked on soccer?I’ve played sports for as long as I can remember. I couldn’t imagine a childhood or adolescence any other way. And soccer was one of the few team sports [available] for girls when I was a kid.
Did you watch pro sports growing up?There weren’t a lot of women on TV playing team sports. Most of the female sports figures and role models were playing individual sports, like tennis, figure skating or gymnastics.
How did it feel when you became an example for a whole generation of girls?
I didn’t set out to be a role model. In the beginning, I didn’t realize I was becoming one, or that people were paying attention. I was so focused on what I was doing.
I think when you’re in a situation like that, you spend so much time and exert so much energy on your goal that you don’t realize what’s going on around you.
When did that change?Once I got older, and the significance of what we were doing started to sink in my teammates and I took our roles on and off the field very seriously.
We wanted to set positive examples. It was really an honor to be considered a role model.
You’re a retired soccer superstar, and your husband just retired from a great career in baseball. Are you prepping your daughters to follow in your athletic footsteps?
Instead of pushing them to play a specific sport, we strive for them to be physically active, just because of all the benefits associated with [that]. We also want them to follow their passions and dreams. And if that’s not soccer or baseball, that’s completely fine.
What kinds of sports are they playing now?
They kick the soccer ball around, and we play catch. But it’s nothing organized. It’s not as if they wake up and all they want to do is play sports. They love going to the park or dressing up and playing princesses.
As the mother of twins, what do you do to help foster your daughters as individuals?My husband and I think it’s important for them to have their own identities. We make sure we each do things separately with them.
We give them the room to find out who they are as individuals as well as sisters. We don’t expect both girls to like the same color or have the same favorite food. If they come to that conclusion on their own, that’s fine.
But we also nurture the fact that they’re sisters and they love each other. At this point, they don’t really get caught up in being twins. Maybe because they don’t understand what that really represents yet.
Plus, they’re fraternal so they don’t look alike… at least I don’t think they do. So that helps.
How will you help them navigate the peer pressure young girls face in school?First and foremost, I’m going to make sure they know that my husband and I love them unconditionally and we’re always there for them.
I’m always working to build that trust and nurture our relationship, so they know they can come to us for anything. I think it’s also important to set good examples and talk to them about self-esteem and taking pride in who they are and what they do.
I want to empower them to be strong young girls who follow their dreams and goals, instead of following someone else’s agenda.
For more information on the Mia Hamm Foundation and how to donate bone marrow, visit http://www.miafoundation.org/.
Are You a Good Mom?
Being a good mom means more than baking cookies and joining the PTA. She provides guidance, encouragement, discipline, and structure.
But sometimes a busy schedule and not enough “me” time gets in the way of being the best mom you can be. Find out if you’ve got the parenting thing down by taking this quiz.
