The Importance of Mia

Friday, February 26, 2010 | View Comments

The late nineties was a low point for the USMNT. 3-6-1. Amy Wynalda. Three and out in France with an embarrassing loss to Iran. National team stalwarts like Tab Ramos, Marcelo Balboa, and Jeff Agoos found themselves on the wrong side of thirty. Many of the generation that would make their mark in the 2002 World Cup had yet to prove themselves as professionals. The highest level of men's soccer in the United States was in the doldrums, to say the least.

The USWNT, however, was in their golden age. Buoyed by success on the field and with audiences at the 1996 Summer Olympics, organizers for the 1999 Women's World Cup gambled and decided to schedule games not in small and medium sized venues, but in cavernous NFL stadiums. The gamble paid, and the tournament broke just about every record possible for women's sports, posting an average attendance of 37,319 per match. By contrast, the men's European Championships the following year drew an average of 36,220 per match. The final, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, was attended by a staggering (and record-breaking) 90,185, and watched on TV by forty million viewers, not only a record for a soccer game in the US, but a number that most NFL games fall short of.

But more important than the hard numbers, although impressive, are the intangibles and the legacy left behind. Brandi Chastain's celebration, her face contorted in pure joy and the ecstasy of victory, positively radiating, is a truly iconic American sporting image. The exposure for both soccer in America and women's sports was immense, a priceless PR boon. But most importantly, it gave us Mia.

There is, unfortunately sometimes a perception of female athletes being either mindless, talentless bimbos (see: Kournikova, Anna) or man-hating valkyries. Mia Hamm was neither. She was a woman who looked like a woman, but played like the boys. There was no minivan, oboe-practice-today-soccer-tomorrow-and-ballet-on-friday soccer mom vibe. Mia was unmistakably, a competitor, intense, ultra-focused, completely determined, and quite simply, the best in the World (103 goals in 95 games with UNC, and 158 in 275 with the USWNT, a FIFA record for men or women). In a time when most American soccer players would struggle to be recognized in their hometown, Mia was doing commercials with Michael Jordan, shilling products like Nike and Gatorade. To the American public, she was the foremost soccer player since Pele, and the most prominent female athlete since Billie Jean King. Washington Post columnist and ESPN analyst Michael Wilbon called her "perhaps the most important athlete of the last 15 years." In my own opinion, the player most responsible for the growth and popularity of soccer in America today is not Landon Donovan. It is not David Beckham. It is Mia Hamm.

Led by Mia, that USWNT accomplished so much, carried so many torches, and were an inspiration for a generation of youth soccer players in this country, male and female, providing a tangible link between the masses of the grassroots players and the small elite that makes up the professional ranks. For a few short years, at least, the USWNT was more famous, and far more successful, than their male counterparts. When the final story of soccer in this country is told, pride of place must be awarded to these athletes.

Finally, if you haven't seen Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team, make sure you do so. It's a brilliant bit of film-making and an inspiring story.

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