Hope Solo Not Dainty Enough for Dancing With the Stars

Hope Solo is a competitive athlete. She’s won Olympic gold. World Cup Silver. The Golden Glove Award at this summer’s Women’s World Cup. She is probably the best female goalkeeper in the world.

Yet, those judges on Dancing With the Stars made this incredibly fit woman feel inadequate.

In an interview she did with Anderson Cooper after she was booted off the show she talked about how naive she was going into the competition, and how she was told she had too much muscle and wasn’t dainty enough.

It just blows my mind how this woman who has invested her life in taking care of her body and is an amazing role model for young girls and boys across the country could be made to feel like she’s not good enough because she had too much muscle? Shouldn’t we be teaching our kids how great it is that Hope Solo can have a career as a female soccer player and that her muscles are are good thing in her chosen profession.

In the brief moments I saw of the show I thought it was amazing to see a real athlete performing in this setting. She not only raised her profile (she’s in Us Weekly now), she raised the profile of women’s soccer.

The team begins its Olympic qualifying run in January. Wonder if more people will be interested in the team now that Hope has been on Dancing With the Stars.