page_title: Mia Hamm
section_title: In popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Mia Hamm / In popular culture
caption_attribution_description: Mia Hamm signing autographs in Cary, NC
context_page_description: Mariel Margaret Hamm-Garciaparra is an American retired professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Hailed as a soccer icon, she played as a forward for the United States women's national soccer team from 1987–2004. Hamm was the face of the Women's United Soccer Association, the first professional women's soccer league in the United States, where she played for the Washington Freedom from 2001–2003. She played college soccer for the North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team and helped the team win four consecutive NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship titles.
  During her tenure with the national team, Hamm competed in four FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments: the inaugural 1991 in China, 1995 in Sweden, 1999 and 2003 in the United States. She led the team at three Olympic Games, including: 1996 in Atlanta, 2000 in Sydney, and 2004 in Athens. She completed her international career having played in 42 matches and scored 14 goals at these 7 international tournaments.
context_section_description: Hamm has been called the most marketable female athlete of her generation. During her time as an international soccer player, she signed endorsement deals with Gatorade, Nike, Dreyer's Ice Cream, Pepsi, Nabisco, Fleet Bank, Earthgrains, and Powerbar. Hamm was featured on a Wheaties box following the 1999 World Cup and endorsed the first Soccer Barbie by Mattel. She co-starred with Michael Jordan in a popular television commercial for Gatorade which featured the two athletes competing against each other in a variety of sports while the song Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better) is heard. The commercial ends with Hamm throwing Jordan to the ground in a judo match. In 1997, she starred in a popular commercial for Pert Plus. In 2000, the video game, Mia Hamm Soccer 64 was released for Nintendo 64. It was the first game to feature female athletes only and sold a "relatively high" 42,886 copies in the United States.
  Hamm was featured on the covers of Sports Illustrated, Time, and People. She has made appearances on numerous television shows, including: Late Night with David Letterman,  The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Today, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Good Morning America, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. She was profiled in ESPN's SportsCentury and Biography documentaries, ESPN 25: Who's #1?, and was featured in Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos.  In 2005, she was featured in the HBO documentary Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team. Her likeness was used in the logo of Women's Professional Soccer, the second women's professional soccer league in the United States. Hamm was mentioned on a season eight episode of the TV series Friends. When Rachel had Joey put his hand on her belly, she says, "Aw, it's unbelievable! Wow! She is kicking so much! Oh, she's like, um, who's that kind of annoying girl soccer player?" Joey asks, "Mia Hamm?" Rachel says, "Mia Hamm!".
caption: Hamm signing an autograph, 2006
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