Mia Hamm: The USWNT icon with unparalleled influence on and off the field

There is a reasonable case to be made that – when factoring in sporting achievement, off-field influence and sheer drive to improve the lives and prospects of others – few, if any, athletes past or present have etched a legacy as grand as Mia Hamm’s.

While is it not confined within the white lines of the soccer field, that is where the story of Hamm’s greatness begins.

Representing the University of North Carolina, Hamm was the star of four consecutive college championship-winning teams. For much of her career, there was no fully professional women’s soccer league in operation, so instead she routinely demonstrated her brilliance in the international ranks, leading the United States to two World Cup triumphs and two Olympic gold medals.

Unanimously considered one of the greatest players of all time, Hamm won the US Soccer Female Athlete of the Year award five times in succession, between 1994 and 1998, as well as winning three ESPY awards and being named in five different halls of fame.

Renowned for her speed, dynamism and lethal finishing, Hamm remains one of the game’s great scorers. She excelled, also, in the intangibles – a quiet yet inspirational leader and dedicated team-mate.

“Mia set the tone with her heart and work rate,” says former USWNT team-mate Shannon MacMillan. “She was always willing to do whatever it took for the team.”

Usually, doing whatever it took for the team meant scoring goals. At that, Hamm was unrivalled. In a 17-year senior international career – which began in 1987, when she was just 15 years old – the former UNC Tar Heel scored 158 goals in 276 games. On September 18, 1998, in a friendly against Russia in Rochester, New York, Hamm notched her 100th USWNT goal, becoming the first player – male or female – to reach triple figures on the international stage.

There were times, also, when doing whatever it took required Hamm to take on challenges a lot less familiar to her than putting the ball in the net. In the 1995 World Cup final, United States goalkeeper Briana Scurry was sent off with five minutes remaining when the referee adjudged that she had handled the ball outside the penalty area. With no substitutions left at his disposal, coach Tony DiCicco called on his star striker. Unquestioningly, Hamm swapped her white outfield jersey for Scurry’s yellow one and made a couple of impressive saves to preserve a 2-0 victory.

It was an example of a willingness to self-sacrifice that was typical of Hamm. Another came at the 1999 World Cup final, when the effort she expended in helping her side beat China on penalties in front of 90,000 at the Rose Bowl in scorching Pasadena, California, caused her to collapse with dehydration in the locker room.

Hamm scored a record 20 goals for the USWNT in 1998, but that tally was matched by the number of assists she provided for colleagues. She was soccer’s first transcendent female superstar, the runaway best player on the world’s top team, but there was an unaffected humility to her character, her leadership.

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“After we won the ‘96 gold medal, Mia bought me a bottle of champagne,” remembers MacMillan, who made 177 appearances for the United States between 1993 and 2005. “Being the first year I truly felt that I belonged with that team, I was speechless and beyond touched that she would take the time to do something like that.

“In true Mia fashion, she didn’t want to make a big deal about it so very little was said during the exchange, but I forever cherish that memory. I was absolutely floored to receive such a thoughtful gesture from Mia.”

Hamm’s achievements on the pitch ensured her celebrity status off it, a degree of attention with which she was never truly comfortable. She would stress how the beauty of her sport, for her, was to be found in the pursuit of togetherness and team success, rather than personal glory. When asked to pose for a magazine cover shoot in the build-up to the 1999 World Cup final on home soil, she insisted on four of her team-mates being included as well. She was a reluctant icon yet an ideal role model.

“She was the face of the team, even though she would have preferred to quietly go about, letting her skills and play do the talking,” MacMillan says. “Mia always embraced and managed the pressure with grace.

“Off the field, Mia is one of the funniest people you will meet – always quick with a one-liner out of the blue that leaves you cracking up. It’s not lost on me that I was incredibly blessed to share the field with some amazing, inspiring and incredible women, Mia being one of them.”

Hamm’s cultural profile was never higher than in the months surrounding the ’99 triumph. That year, she starred opposite fellow ex-Tar Heel Michael Jordan in a TV commercial for Gatorade, competing against the basketball superstar in a series of athletic contests before finally throwing the 6ft 6ins NBA MVP to the mat in a judo match. She was a cover star of Sports Illustrated, Time and People magazine and appeared as a guest on Late Night with David Letterman.

Two days before the ’99 final, it was announced that a new professional women’s soccer league was to be inaugurated, with Hamm, who would play for the Washington Freedom, on board as its most marketable star. The Women’s United Soccer Association folded in 2003 and Hamm retired a year later, but the league served as a precursor and trailblazer for the now-thriving NWSL. When, in 2009, the short-lived Women’s Professional Soccer league was founded, Hamm’s image – in silhouette form, a la the NBA and MLB – was used for the logo.

It was also in 1999 that Hamm founded the Mia Hamm Foundation. Two years earlier, her adopted brother Garrett had died of a rare blood disease. Hamm created her foundation to raise awareness and funds for families in need of bone marrow and cord blood transplants.

In 2000, Hamm authored a book – Go For the Goal: A Champion’s Guide to Winning in Soccer and Life – with which she aimed to inspire future generations of girls. “A winner is that person who gets up one more time than she is knocked down,” she wrote. “I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing the goal, and that’s not pulling the trigger.” The book was a national bestseller. The same year, she was also the face of the first soccer video game to feature all-female players, Mia Hamm Soccer 64 for the Nintendo 64.

More recently, Hamm has served as a global ambassador for FC Barcelona, a board member of AS Roma, authored a youth fiction book entitled Winners Never Quit, helped found MLS side LAFC as a co-owner and launched the NWSL club Angel City FC.

Nike chairman Phil Knight once named Hamm alongside Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods as one of the “three athletes who played at a level that added a new dimension to their games”. It shouldn’t be overlooked that Knight selected a trio of athletes all signed to endorsement deals with his apparel brand, but it doesn’t mean he was wrong. The largest building within Nike’s Oregon headquarters is named after the soccer star.

Her on-field resume alone would have been enough to enshrine Hamm within the pantheon of soccer’s all-time greats. The strength and breadth of her influence within and outside of the sporting world ensures Hamm’s is a legacy unmatched.