Ex-USWNT star Hope Solo pleads guilty to DWI charge

Former U.S. women’s national soccer team goalie Hope Solo received a 24-month suspended sentence on Monday in Winston-Salem, N.C., after pleading guilty to a charge of driving while impaired. The case stems from a March incident in which Solo was arrested in Winston-Salem when she was reportedly found passed out in the driver’s seat of her car with the engine running and her 2-year-old twins in the backseat.

Charges of misdemeanor child abuse and resisting a public officer were dropped, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. The suspended sentence credits Solo with 30 days as time served for her stay while undergoing rehab for alcohol abuse in April. Solo was fined $2,500 and ordered to pay $600 for lab fees.

Solo posted Monday on Twitter, “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.”

Solo, 40, made 202 appearances for the U.S. women’s national team from 2000-2016, helping the team win the Women’s World Cup in 2015 and Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012. In a career that was as decorated on the field as it was controversial off the field, Solo was dismissed from the national squad for good after criticizing the Swedish team for its tactics while beating the U.S. team in the 2016 Olympics.