Mia Hamm

Mia Hamm married Christiaan Corry, a US Marine Corps helicopter pilot, in 1995; they divorced in 2001. She married Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra on November 22, 2003. They have twin girls—Grace Isabella and Ava Caroline, and a son Garrett Anthony.

She has authored the national bestseller ‘Go For the Goal: A Champion's Guide to Winning in Soccer and Life’, and the fiction ‘Winners Never Quit’.

She founded the Mia Hamm Foundation after her adopted brother Garrett died in 1997 due to aplastic anemia, a rare blood disease. The foundation spreads awareness about bone marrow diseases, and also raises funds for people who need bone marrow transplants. It also creates opportunities in the field of sports to empower women.

Mia Hamm was born on March 17, 1972, in Selma, Alabama as the fourth child of Air Force pilot Bill Hamm and Stephanie. Throughout her childhood, she and her family stayed at various 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. At Texas, she joined a soccer team for the first time. Her father coached her and her adopted brother Garrett.

While she was at the 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. She 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. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a scholarship from 1989 to 1994, and helped Tar Heels women's soccer team win four NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championships.

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 a 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 their 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.

While playing for the Tar Heels women's soccer team, Mia Hamm was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year for three consecutive years and the ACC Female Athlete of the Year for two consecutive years.

The Women's Sports Foundation named her the Sportswoman of the Year in 1997 and 1999. In 1999, Nike named the largest building on its corporate campus after Hamm.

In 2000, FIFA Female Player of the Century Awards named her as one of the top three female soccer players of the 20th century.

She was also elected as the US Soccer Female Athlete of the Year for five years—from 1994 to 1998. She won three ESPY awards including the Soccer Player of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year.

In 2004, she was listed in the FIFA 100 as one of the greatest living soccer players.