Issue date: June 20, 1999

In this article:
Q & A with Mia Hamm
Model athletes
See Soccer Barbie
Mia Hamm's fitness advice

The new face of a role model

Girls around the globe finally get the role model they deserve: Mia Hamm.

IA HAMM just may be the only person more popular with adolescent girls than Leonardo DiCaprio. The Women's World Cup (billed as the biggest female sporting event in history) arrives for the first time ever in the United States. ABC, ESPN and espn2 will televise all 32 games, with an estimated 1 billion viewers. The undisputed star is Hamm, 27, the Jordan-Gretzky-McGwire of soccer, all in one shiny-tressed package.

Though her ballerina mom tried to lead her into dance, it was the soccer passion of her dad, an Air Force colonel, that caught her attention. In May, Hamm - who led the University of North Carolina to four NCAA championships in the early '90s, won Olympic gold in '96 and has been U.S. Soccer's Player of the Year five years straight - broke the international goal-scoring record of all time, male or female.

None of this may have been possible without 1972's Title IX (born the same year as Hamm), which mandated equal funding for girls' school sports. Till then, the only role models for female athletes were skaters, gymnasts or, well, guys. Now, more than 7 million girls play soccer, and they all want to be like Mia.

Phenomenal athletic skills and good looks aside, Hamm is a more-than-worthy role model. She has put her celebrity status into good causes: creating the Mia Hamm Foundation - dedicated to bone-marrow diseases (her brother Garrett, one of five siblings, died from aplastic anemia) - and encouraging young female athletes. Hamm juggles a long-distance marriage (her husband of five years is Lt. Christiaan Corry, a Marine Corps helicopter pilot) with a career that includes endorsements and writing (the instructional-motivational book Go for the Goal). She's even the spokeswoman for Soccer Barbie.

Here, Hamm, a USA WEEKEND contributing editor, talks about life as sports' newest kind of role model.

Q: Girls today have a wider variety of role models than ever before, and you're one of them. What's it like to be a role model? I take it very seriously. I didn't have the role models these girls have. Most of my athletic role models were men. There's only so much you can identify with.

Q: Is it hard to be a role model every day? We all, in our own small worlds, are role models. If you can impact someone's life, then you have a responsibility to try to impact it in a positive way.

Q: Will playing team sports help girls as they grow up? How has it helped you? Sports can do so much. It's given me a framework: meeting new people, confidence, self-esteem, time management, discipline, motivation. All these things I learned, whether I knew I was learning it or not, through sports.

Q: Are you spiritual? Do you pray before games? I used to pray [during] the national anthem. Then I saw a picture of me with my head down and I didn't like the way everyone was looking at the flag and I wasn't. So if I pray, I do it before we get out there. One of my pet peeves is when people don't stop moving or talking during the anthem.

Q: Is it hard to be far from your husband? It's difficult. Especially when [you lose a game and] you're just frustrated and you want someone to talk to, not necessarily about the game but about something else.

Q: Do you keep in touch by e-mail? E-mail, phone calls. These are the kinds of lives we chose before we met each other. He wanted to be in the Marine Corps and I wanted to play on the national team. I think we've done a good job about trying to make the most of our time.

Q: What's the most important thing your mother taught you that you can teach a child? Everyone has goodness. It's just a matter of how it's nurtured. Hopefully, I can do the same thing, nurture my son or daughter to grow up with love in his or her heart for everyone and understand that circumstances are different for other people and that before you start judging them, maybe you should walk around in their shoes.

Q: You're in a position to effect change for a lot of young women. What do you think people should do more of? Be kinder to each other. It's amazing the power of hello or a "please" or "thank you."

Q: How do you think soccer is like life? You get out of it exactly what you put into it. It can teach you so much. It's also humbling. You think you're doing great, then all of a sudden something happens. How do you go on from there? Same as soccer. You can outshoot a team 20 to 2 and lose 1 to 0.

Q: I hear you're quite the golfer. Do you think you'd get into golf professionally? I'd love to, but I don't think I have the game. I know I don't. I'm fortunate to play a team sport, where if I'm struggling, I have other teammates to make up for something. Golf, it's you. You hit a bad shot and you're toast for the rest of the round.

Q: Tell me about your Barbie doll.I'm just a spokesperson. Barbie is her own woman.

Q: Did you have any issues with Barbie? Barbie and Mattel have realized girls can and want to be so much more. They do Soccer Barbie, they do WNBA Basketball Barbie, Figure Skating Barbie - all these things girls want to be. It's a positive message.

Q: You get many letters from girls. What do you say to those who ask, "Mia, what's the meaning of life?"Be happy. It's that simple. We go out and we play because it makes us feel good.

-- By Gayle Jo Carter
As a child, USA WEEKEND entertainment editor Gayle Jo Carter played soccer in a boys' league. She was the fullback with red shinguards.

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USA WEEKEND magazine asked these outstanding female athletes to name their athletic role models.

Figure skater
Michelle Kwan:
Basketball's Michael Jordan

Gymnast
Mary Lou Retton:
Gymnast Nadia Comaneci

Basketball player
Sheryl Swoopes:
Basketball's Michael Jordan

Speed skater
Bonnie Blair:
Sprinter Edwin Moses

Swimmer
Janet Evans:
Swimmer Tracy Caulkins

Tennis star
Chris Evert:
Hockey's Wayne Gretzky and sprinter Jackie
Joyner-Kersee

Basketball player
Cynthia Cooper:
Basketball player
Lynette Woodard

- Michele Hatty

Soccer Barbie

To read Hamm's fitness advice written for USA WEEKEND, click here. To learn more about Hamm's foundation and the cause it supports, click on miafoundation.org.

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