📍Wichita Falls, TX, USA
1977 – 1987“Mariel Margaret Hamm, always known as Mia, was born in Selma, Alabama, in March 1972, with a club foot that had to be corrected with casts and special shoes. Her father, Bill, was a US Air Force pilot, and the family moved between air bases; she first played football in Florence, Italy, where her father was stationed and the whole family fell in love with the game. In 1977 the Hamms moved to Wichita Falls, in north Texas, near Sheppard Air Force Base, and that year they adopted two boys, including eight-year-old Garrett. Garrett, who was Thai-American, became Mia's best friend and hero, and she followed him everywhere, playing football and every other sport with him and his friends. At five she joined her first team in Wichita Falls, and her father often coached. She was shy, but on the field she was fearless, fast and ferociously competitive, and she played on boys' teams and in American football as a quarterback. She went to Notre Dame High School in Wichita Falls, and at fifteen she became the youngest player ever to play for the US national team. She went on to win two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals, and four national championships with the University of North Carolina. She was FIFA World Player of the Year twice, and for years she held the world record for international goals. Garrett was diagnosed with a rare blood disease as a teenager and lost his life to complications in 1997. In his memory she started the Mia Hamm Foundation, which supports bone marrow research and young women in sport.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today