When you watch an athlete on TV or while attending a game, you don’t really think about who they are as a person. You don’t really think about where they came from, what they went through, and what made them who they are. We often just coldly judge athletes based on the hired entertainers we perceive them to be without considering anything else about them. It seems like Hope Solo is trying to change that about herself.
The US women’s soccer team goalie has published an autobiography entitled “Solo: A Memoir of Hope” that goes on sale August 14. Excerpts from the book were released by NBC Olympics on Monday, and they detail Solo’s rough upbringing.
Solo says her father was in and out of her life growing up. He had multiple families, fathered children with different women, and had them living in homes paid for by money he embezzled from a company where he worked. Solo described him as a con man and ladies man who “was unreliable at best and a criminal at worst.”
And get this: Solo says she was conceived during a conjugal visit while her father was serving a prison sentence in Washington.
That’s enough to give you an idea of how rough things were for Hope. She says she’s made peace with her father and that has helped prevent her from being bitter and angry.
Solo described the process of divulging all her secrets as therapeutic, comparing it to having a childhood counselor.
“It was hard. I came to grips with a lot of difficulties that I’ve overcome,” Solo told NBC. “Each challenge kind of makes you who you are. It wasn’t always a good thing. I have my own struggles in my life because of the things I was forced to overcome. So it was hard, it was a reality check, for sure. But I am really happy I’ve done it.
“I just want people to not judge with their eyes, but judge with their hearts, and I think that’s what this book is all about,” she says.
The book comes out August 14. Based on the excerpt and how openly Solo speaks in general, the book should be excellent.
Photo Credit: Eric Hartline-US PRESSWIRE
