Mia Hamm Quotes

Many people say I'm the best women's soccer player in the world. I don't think so. And because of that, someday I just might be.

Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don't settle for them.

The backbone of success is...hard work, determination, good planning, and perserverence.

The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking.

You don't just want to beat a team. You want to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see your face again.

A winner is that person who gets up one more time than she is knocked down.

I am a member of the 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.

Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.” Mia Hamm quote

Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back... play for her.

I’ve worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down, and I will not let myself down.

My coach said I ran like a girl, I said if he could run a little faster he could too

Celebrate what you've accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.

true champions arent always the ones that win,but those with the most guts.

You may get skinned knees and elbows, but it's worth it if you score a spectacular goal.

If a team intimidate you physically and you let them, they've won.

The person that said winning isn't everything, never won anything.

It is more difficult to stay on top than to get there.

It isn't sacrifice if you love what you're doing.

I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing the goal, and that's not pulling the trigger.

Celebrate what you have accomplished but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.

Go for the Goal!

I am building a fire, and everyday I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.

I hope all you young girls see yourself up there... We were just like you”.

If you don't love what you do, you won't do it with much conviction or passion.

You should want to win. I still remember when I was little. Girls would score a goal, and we would walk together, high-five, and walk back to our positions. Boys are running around, going "I'm Number One." It wasn't like that for young girls. With girls, if you miss the ball on a tackle and hit the other player, it's like, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry.

There are always new, grander challenges to confront, and a true winner will embrace each one.

First thing she said to me once we got our food: “I have one daughter. Thirteen years old. Mia. For Mia Hamm. She was born the day we won the World Cup. So, that’s my daughter.

Anson Dorrance ... left me a short, encouraging note: "The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when nobody else is watching.

The team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.

Each day I attempted to play up to their level... and I was improving faster than I ever dreamed possible.

With each passing day soccer carves a larger scoop of my life. I love it for what it gives me: praise, affection, and, above all, attention. When I'm on the field I don't have to plead to be noticed, either silently or aloud; it is a natural by-product of my talent. I loathe it for the same reason, terrified that soccer is the only worthwile thing about me, that stripping it from my identity might make me disappear. My future teammate and friend Mia Hamm will one day offer this advice: "Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back... play for her." I am not, and never will be, that little girl. Already I know I'm incapable of falling in love with the game itself--only with the validation that comes from mastering it, from bending it to my will.

My coach said I run like a girl. And I said if he ran a little faster he could too. - Mia Hamm

My coach said I run like a girl. And I said if he ran a little faster he could too.

Chastain had watched teammates like Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy end their careers with testimonial matches—the special farewell games that important players earn—but she was never going to get one. Her last game was the final stop of the post-Olympics victory tour in 2004, the same last game as Hamm and Foudy, only Chastain didn’t know it at the time. “It wasn’t on my radar—it wasn’t supposed to happen like that,” Chastain says. “He was the assistant coach. I’m not sure how he became coach of the national team, to be honest, and there was no discussion.” Shannon MacMillan, another veteran, tells a similar story. She, too, was surprised to find herself left off rosters, but in her case, it was because Greg Ryan had reassured her that she was in his plans. As time went on and she still hadn’t gotten a call, at age 31 she gave up hope of ever returning to the team. Her career ended at 176 caps. “I was like, Enough’s enough,” she says. “That’s kind of what forced my hand into retiring. I just got sick and tired of the politics and the B.S.

One by one, the players expressed their anger and disappointment. They said Solo had torn down what the players before her—players like Julie Foudy and Mia Hamm—had built up. This team had a vitally important culture that Solo was destroying. Solo argued: “This isn’t about Julie Foudy or anyone else from the past.” But her pushback only seemed to further upset the veterans. “I didn’t know to handle this betrayal of the team culture,” Markgraf says now. “I was tired, I was hurt, I had blown my ankle out after a poor World Cup. We played horrible soccer. And she blasted Bri, who had handled the transition of power at goalkeeper in a very classy way, so when she did that, it became a mess. I wish I had kept my cool, but her actions were the telling sign that the old culture would no longer work.” For the rest of the players outside that leadership group, the situation was viewed with a range of attitudes, but everyone knew it was something that needed to be dealt with. The problem was that there wasn’t a consensus on what to do.

So, after that meeting with the Women’s Sports Foundation, she called King to ask her how the national team could get the federation to listen to them. “You just don’t play. That’s the only leverage you have,” King told Foudy. “They depend on you, you’re representing them, you make them money, and you have to say no.” And that’s exactly what the veteran players did. Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, Briana Scurry, Michelle Akers, Joy Fawcett, Kristine Lilly, Carla Overbeck, Carin Jennings, and Tisha Venturini rejected U.S. Soccer’s offer for a contract for 1996, and the nine players did not attend a training camp in December 1995, just months away from the Olympics. Hank Steinbrecher, U.S. Soccer’s secretary general, told reporters that the players were being greedy, quipping that they were more worried about lining their pockets—or, rather, shoes. “Our team is favored to win it all and we

All my life I've been playing up, meaning I've challenged myself with players older, bigger, more skillful, more experienced -- in short, better than me.

I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match. —Mia Hamm, member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame