Wonder Woman of the Week: Mia Hamm

Like most kids from my generation, I played soccer in grade school. I came from a unique generation of American youth because we were pretty much the first generation that grew up playing the sport. The big name in soccer during that time was even more revolutionary because it was probably the greatest female soccer player in history- Mia Hamm.

Mia Hamm grew up in Alabama and was the youngest woman to play in a Women’s World Cup at only fifteen. Not only did she play at fifteen years old, but she played for the team for seventeen years. During those years, the United States won the Women’s World Cup in 1991 and 1999, and they took the Olympic Gold in 1996 and 2004. Hamm held the record for most goals scored by a woman in international soccer until 2013 until fellow badass Abby Wambach broke the record.

Hamm won Fifa’s “World Player of the Year” twice in 2001 and 2002 beating out male and female players both years. Mia Hamm may have also single-handedly (or single-footedly) launched Women’s Soccer into international relevance by showing female football players could be serious athletes. She definitely brought the sport to prominence in the United States where the first generation of soccer-playing school kids were starting to play soccer. There have been a lot of athletes highlighted on this blog, but Mia Hamm stands as one of the most important female athletes (if not athletes in general) of all time.

http://www.biography.com/people/mia-hamm-16472547#synopsis