It’s still difficult to have a conversation about American soccer without Mia Hamm’s name coming up. She’s a three-time Olympic medal winner (two golds, one silver) and a four-time World Cup participant. She was on the field in 1999, when the U.S. both hosted and won. She still ranks third on the list of players who have the most international goals of all time (just behind Christine Sinclair and Abby Wambach, just above Maysa Jbarah and Cristiano Ronaldo).
She is, as some might say, that girl.
But her years as a professional athlete weren’t always easy, and she spent a lot of them in pain.
This month, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) published a new report that says it all: “Genders experience pain differently and women have it more.” Per the report, women are more likely to experience chronic pain than men and will experience it for longer. On top of that, a lot of that pain goes untreated.
For athletes, pain is part of the game to some degree. It’s an accepted part of the job—what’s changed is how that pain is managed and treated. Hamm joined Emma Sears, 2024 Racing Louisville draftee, and Tylenol this month for an event called PainTalk where the two women traded stories about what they’ve endured and played through.
Hamm was drawn to the event because of its emphasis on women’s health, she told The IX Sports this week, and to be part of something that was focused on “getting women to talk about their pain and acknowledge it.”
Hamm continued, “I think a lot of the time, we’re asked to put others first, and this idea of, ‘Oh, we’ll get to it when we get to it’ — that doesn’t help anyone. It definitely doesn’t help the person who’s dealing with the pain, and it actually makes it worse further down the road when you get to it.”
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For athletes, whose career currency is calculated in minutes as much as it is in any other metric, experiencing pain from injury or overuse and then trying to treat it is often compounded by the belief that doing so will limit playing time on the pitch, court, or field.
“From an athlete perspective, it’s like, ‘Well, they’re going to think I’m not tough enough, and then if they think I’m not tough enough, then maybe I’m not going to get as many minutes on the field as I need to,'” she continued.
But pain still has a way of catching up to you. “Just like with everyday life … because you ignore it, it doesn’t mean it gets better. So, acknowledging it, really treating it, is important overall for health,” Hamm said.
NWSL players in 2026 have a range of options that weren’t available to their predecessors, including massage therapists, physical therapists, and different types of prehab and rehab. That’s a stark contrast to when Hamm was at her peak and only had access to quality care when she was training with the national team.
“I was trying to piece the wellness on my own, without really any medical insurance,” she said. “So that creates a whole different level of stress. You make some hard decisions—I had teammates that had to make some really hard decisions, and we don’t want that for anyone.”
When asked what some of those tough decisions looked like, Hamm said they were often more subtle than many might think.
“Well, I think for me what ended up happening is there were certain injuries that I thought were no big deal,” she explained. “I was like, ‘Oh, that this isn’t a really… like, my knee hurts. I don’t know, maybe it’s just wear and tear or something like that, or just maybe I stepped wrong, or it’s just sore practice the last week.
“And because I let it linger, I ended up finding out that it was worse than I thought it was,” she added. “And that’s another thing, there were times in my career when I would get tackled and be like, ‘Oh, there’s something really wrong, and they’re like, ‘No, you’re just.. you’re going to be fine. Just give it a week,'” and I was fine.”
That wasn’t always the case. “But then there were times I’d be like, ‘Well, it bothers me, but it wasn’t as painful as that one tackle,’ and it ended up being a more serious injury, like a partially torn MCL, or a cartilage injury,” Hamm continued. “So it’s stuff like that, that I think that’s one of the reasons why we talk about, ‘Don’t ignore it, because it could be more serious than you realize.”
Injuries, USWNT, and World Cup 2031
The women on the NWSL and USWNT might have access to improved care and facilities in 2026, but injuries are still very much part of the game. Trinity Rodman battled back from a back injury after last year, and Lilly Reale suffered a foot injury only months ago.
Preventing and treating injuries will be top of mind as the USWNT heads into next year’s FIFA World Cup in 2027. The team will face some formidable competition, and as Hamm noted, soccer is a bit unpredictable.
“What’s so great about soccer is you have to show up for everything,” she said with a smile on her face. “Even [in] the men’s World Cup we’ve been watching—who would have thought Spain would tie Cape Verde? You have to be prepared to get the opposition’s best game.”
Right now, Hamm says Spain, England, France, and Brazil pose the most serious threat to the Americans. “There’s so many talented players and teams that have really invested in the women’s side, and even that small investment has created this incredible return,” she said. “And the more that happens, the better these teams, the deeper those teams are going to be.”
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While much of the focus is rightfully on next year’s event, the 2031 World Cup is already looming in the minds of many. Parts of the tournament will be hosted in the United States, something that calls to mind the victory Hamm and her teammates experienced in 1999.
But the upcoming World Cup could be even better than that, she said. “It has the potential to be even bigger and better, because with the NWSL, which has been really fun, you have players from all over the world coming and playing in our league,” Hamm explained.
With social media, fans have an unprecedented opportunity to connect with and follow as many of those players around the world as they want. “It’s really easy to be able to follow these players via either social media or in the leagues that they play,” she continued, “So you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, she plays for Chelsea or she plays for Angel City, I can go and figure out their match set schedule, and I can stream their match, and I can follow Alyssa Thompson or I can watch this Spanish player who plays for Barcelona.”
The result? An even larger shared experience for fans all over the world, which is really what the game is all about.
