Regardless of how she may try to sugarcoat it, Dancing With the Stars was an experience Hope Solo would like to forget. A few weeks ago, Solo told the world about how the show featured her in a poor light and how the judges criticized her for having too much muscle. Last week, she returned to the place she belongs: the soccer field.
“The moment I walked onto the field, I was like, ‘Oh man, I’m getting dirty again, it’s OK to have muscles, it’s OK to get scratched up, I can wear my sweats,'” Solo said according to the USA Today.
In fact, Solo wants to completely put the DWTS days behind her and her teammates are well aware of that.
“We don’t talk about Dancing with the Stars,'” forward Abby Wambach explained. “She needs to be put in a normal world. This is soccer. This is camp. And we’re not going to treat her any differently than the way we’ve been treating her before Dancing with the Stars. No high heels here.”
Solo said the endorsement world shocked her a bit because everything was so scripted. She explained that she was not accustomed to the spotlight treatment she received following the World Cup run, but that the Hollywood world would never affect her confidence.
“Much of it is scripted,” she said. “I went in thinking, ‘OK, if I can just work my butt off, I have an opportunity to compete and succeed.’ It’s not quite like that, because it is television. It was my first experience in that, and I was pretty naïve.”
Not all athletes are candid about it in the way Solo has been, but I’m sure plenty of them find themselves shell-shocked when they step off the field and into the Hollywood limelight. Sports are on television, but they are not strictly television entertainment. Shows like Dancing With the Stars are. Solo is well aware of that now, and it sounds like it’s a lesson she’s thrilled to have learned.
