

Hamm was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame on March 11, 2008. Women's Professional Soccer, a professional soccer league that launched in 2009, features Hamm's silhouette in its logo. In 2007, her first year of eligibility, she was selected for induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame by having 137 votes of the 141 ballots cast. women's national team's victory in the 2004 Olympics. She retired from the sport in 2004, when she played her last game in the 2004 Fan Celebration Tour to commemorate the U.S. Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon called Hamm, "Perhaps the most important athlete of the last 15 years."

She was named the women's FIFA World Player of the Year the first two times that award was given (in 20), and is listed as one of FIFA's 125 best living players (as chosen by Pelé). As part of the first generation of women to grow up with gender equality rights after Title IX passed, she received the college scholarships, endorsements and training opportunities necessary to become a top athlete. Hamm is an iconic symbol of women's sports and an inspiration and role model to a generation of sports-minded girls. Hamm has scored more international goals in her career than any other player, male or female, in the history of soccer (158). Hamm played many years as a forward for the United States women's national soccer team and was a founding member of the Washington Freedom.

Mariel Margaret Garciaparra, best known as Mia Hamm, is a retired American soccer player.
