1. “The backbone of success is…hard work, determination, good planning, and perserverence.” – Mia Hamm
2. “You’re worth the investment in yourself and what you feel, you can and want to be.” – Mia Hamm
3. “Go for the Goal!” – Mia Hamm
4. “I don’t like to play rough, but I will if I have to.” – Mia Hamm
5. “Focus on what you know you can do. Know what you’re capable of on any given day, and what you can count on. Do the simple things well, and then use the confidence to build up the rest of your game. Learn to differentiate between what is truly important and what can be dealt with at another time.” – Mia Hamm
6. “I don’t want to sit and look at all the trophies. I don’t want to live in the past — I want to live now!” – Mia Hamm
7. “I’m not someone who goes around the locker room before a game trying to motivate my teammates. I don’t say a lot before the game. I don’t say a lot in general. It takes too much energy to do that.” – Mia Hamm
8. “I am a member of a 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.” – Mia Hamm
9. “We play because we love the game, we love each other, and we love to win.” – Mia Hamm
10. “It is not sacrifice if you love what you’re doing.” – Mia Hamm
11. “Good players create opportunities. The great players and the great people seize them.” – Mia Hamm
12. “I am building a fire, and everyday I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.” – Mia Hamm
13. “Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.” – Mia Hamm
14. “After each game, I want to be able to say: I gave it all I could, I gave it my best.” – Mia Hamm
15. “true champions arent always the ones that win,but those with the most guts.” – Mia Hamm
16. “If you don’t love what you do, you won’t do it with much conviction or passion.” – Mia Hamm
17. “Soccer isn’t very social. Plus, if you don’t like someone on the other team, you can do something about it.” – Mia Hamm
18. “There are always new, grander challenges to confront, and a true winner will embrace each one.” – Mia Hamm
19. “Sports have become increasingly more specialized, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be fun.” – Mia Hamm
20. “The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking.” – Mia Hamm
21. “I could just have chips and salsa for dinner every day.” – Mia Hamm
22. “Every single day I wake up and commit to myself to becoming a better player.” – Mia Hamm
23. “The most important attribute a player must have is mental toughness.” – Mia Hamm
24. “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.” – Mia Hamm
25. “I’m a part of a team, and I’m no better or any worse than any single player on this team. That’s the approach I’ve always had and will continue to have. It’s not about me. It has never been all about me. If it had, this would have been a really lonely journey.” – Mia Hamm
26. “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.” – Mia Hamm
27. “I know I wouldn’t be here, and all of us wouldn’t be here, without certain sacrifices and certain stands that people have made — not just women, but men stepping up and supporting what we do and how we do it.” – Mia Hamm
28. “I played basketball and soccer my freshman year in high school.” – Mia Hamm
29. “People ask me, ‘Would you ever want to play professional golf?’ And I’m like, ‘No. No, no, no, no. Just because I can hit a good shot every now and then doesn’t make me a pro.’” – Mia Hamm
30. “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.” – Mia Hamm
31. “I am happy that the young girls have a lot more choices these days and an opportunity to feel better about themselves.” – Mia Hamm
32. “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.” – Mia Hamm
33. “Every day I look for ways to be inspired, to learn and to grow. And trying to be the best for my kids, my husband and my family. One thing I really wanna do is being there for my kids, be part of my siblings and my parents.” – Mia Hamm
34. “Sport taught me how to goal set, it really gave me a voice and identity.” – Mia Hamm
35. “My coach said I ran like a girl, I said if he could run a little faster he could too.” – Mia Hamm
36. “Celebrate what you’ve accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.” – Mia Hamm
37. “Golf is social. It brings a lot of people together. And the great thing about a scramble, there’s less pressure because you don’t feel like every shot has to be your shot.” – Mia Hamm
38. “Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them.” – Mia Hamm
39. “Sports can do so much. It’s given me confidence, self-esteem, discipline, and motivation.” – Mia Hamm
40. “I could sit there and eat pasta all day long and not worry about it when I was younger, and now I really have to focus on making sure I set a good example for my kids.” – Mia Hamm
41. “I hope all you young girls see yourself up there… we were just like you.” – Mia Hamm
42. “Sports are not about awards or world championships, though those are great. They’re about the relationships we have with each other.” – Mia Hamm
43. “Being a good teammate is when you try to sprint down a ball that everyone thinks is going out of bounds. But you go after it anyways and you get it.” – Mia Hamm
44. “A winner is that person who gets up one more time than she is knocked down.” – Mia Hamm
45. “You may get skinned knees and elbows, but it’s worth it if you score a spectacular goal.” – Mia Hamm
46. “Every morning, I wake up trying to be the best mom and the best role model for my kids in a healthy diet and active lifestyle.” – Mia Hamm
47. “I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing the goal, and that’s not pulling the trigger.” – Mia Hamm
48. “Success breeds success.” – Mia Hamm
49. “I played soccer because my friends did. Besides we got sodas afterwards.” – Mia Hamm
50. “You can’t just beat a team, you have to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see you again.” – Mia Hamm
51. “Follow your heart and make it your decision.” – Mia Hamm
52. “Experience means you did a lot of things wrong.” – Mia Hamm
53. “I love watching gymnastics, swimming, and track and field.” – Mia Hamm
54. “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.” – Mia Hamm
55. “Goals have never defined me as a player. What has defined me is my impact on the team. If that means passing or playing defense to win, I’ll do it.” – Mia Hamm
56. “I was given a tremendous gift in terms of athleticism. Maybe it was because I wasn’t so confident in other areas.” – Mia Hamm
57. “I don’t like to stop. I’m a big person who looks at where the hubs are because I hate changing planes.” – Mia Hamm
58. “The team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.” – Mia Hamm
59. “English muffins with avocado is one of my favorite breakfasts.” – Mia Hamm
60. “Sports can do so much. They’ve given me a framework: meeting new people, confidence, self-esteem, discipline, motivation. All these things I learned, whether I knew I was learning them or not, through sports.” – Mia Hamm
61. “The person that said winning isn’t everything, never won anything.” – Mia Hamm
62. “It is more difficult to stay on top than to get there.” – Mia Hamm
63. “I don’t like to play rough, but I will if I have to.” – Mia Hamm