‘The worst mistake of my life’ - USWNT legend Hope Solo pleads guilty to DWI

USWNT legend Hope Solo has pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while impaired, with the former goalkeeper admitting that she has made the “worst mistake of my life”. The 40-year-old, who saw her national team contract terminated in 2016, was arrested in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on March 31 and charged with driving while intoxicated, resisting arrest and misdemeanour child abuse.

Police reported that Solo was found passed out behind the wheel of her vehicle with the engine running in the parking lot of a Walmart while her two children were in the car, with prosecutors claiming that she refused to take a sobriety test. It was later determined that she was three times the legal limit to be driving.

Has Hope Solo been sentenced?

Forsyth District Judge Victoria Roemer has issued Solo with a two-year suspended sentence and an active sentence of 30 days, which is considered to have been served as time has already been spent in a rehabilitation centre.

Solo has also been ordered to pay a $2,500 fine after surrendering her license and will be required to undergo a substance abuse assessment before completing a recommended treatment programme.

What has Hope Solo had to say?

Solo remains the most-capped player in the history of the U.S. Women’s National Team after representing her country on 202 occasions – with 153 wins and 102 clean sheets allowing her to collect two Olympic gold medals and a 2015 World Cup crown.

She has been elected to the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame, with her induction being deferred until 2023, and has said on social media of tarnishing her reputation away from the pitch: “It’s been a long road, but I’m slowly coming back from taking time off.

“I pride myself in motherhood and what my husband and I have done day in and day out for over two years throughout the pandemic with two-year-old twins.

“While I’m proud of us, it was incredibly hard and I made a huge mistake. Easily the worst mistake of my life.

“I underestimated what a destructive part of my life alcohol had become.

“The upside of making a mistake this big is that hard lessons are learned quickly. Learning these lessons has been difficult, and at times, very painful.”