A former lethal scorer at Richland High School (Wash.), one of the world's top female goalies juggles Olympic training, fame and professional soccer career.
Hope Solo has always been a star. Butin high school, she starred in a muchdifferent role.
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You get the idea that whatever Hope Solo puts her heart and soul into, the world changes.
Maybe that's because Solo sees life as an adventure.
Widely regarded as one of the world's greatest female goalkeepers, Solo hopes to lead Team USA to its second straight Olympic gold medal – this one in London.
The story of her ascent to stardom takes a meandering path. Solo didn't even play goalie at
Richland (Wash.) - she was a forward, a lethal scoring machine front-liner. She scored 109 goals and led the Bombers to three straight league titles and a state crown in 1999 when she was a senior.
The two-time prep Parade All-American was a premier youth goalkeeper but was switched up to the field to take advantage of her athletic prowess. Fittingly, she scored a hat trick in her second-to-last game and two more in the state finals, including one to clinch the match. The Bombers were undefeated her senior year, earned a No. 4 national ranking and outscored opponents 95-5.
The move from the field turned out to be good as gold.
Solo didn't flinch because that is her nature, she said. She is filled with adventure and possibilities. Like the possibility of winning a second straight gold medal this summer.
"I'm looking forward to the unknown," she told
seattlepi.com. "I say that because every major tournament, for me, has brought something new and unexpected, and something I could never have prepared for."
She couldn't have possibly prepared for her illustrious college career, back in the nets. At the University of Washington, she earned All-Pacific-10 honors four straight teams and was a three-time All-American. When she graduated, she ranked No. 1 in Washington career saves, shutouts and goals-against-average.
And that's when her global career just began to blossom.
She was a two-time Olympic medalist, played 100 games on the U.S. Women's National Team and was the 2009 Women's Professional (WPS) Goalkeeper of the Year.
Her fame went totally mainstream when she and her dance partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy reached the semifinals on the 13th season of "Dancing with the Stars" on ABC. Soon after, she appeared in ESPN's famed "Body Issue" in 2011.
Now she is one of the healthy chiseled faces of Gatorade and is spokesperson for its Inside the Edge series.
"As an elite athlete I need every edge I can get," she said.
She needs that edge to balance her remarkably busy life. Besides training for the Olympics, she plays for the Seattle Sounders women's squad and juggles in modeling and interviews.
"It's not easy to balance," Solo told seattlepi.com. "Every time I come back to Seattle I very much am gracious for my down time. I'm very busy on the road with appearances, shoots and then of course training. So it's been hard, but it's a balance that I'm finally ready to do because I want to give back to the community in Seattle that's helped uplift my career. I wouldn't be on the U.S. women's team without my time in Seattle."
She owes much of her spirit, fame and athletic nature to her late father Jeffrey, who died from heart failure in 2007. He was 69.
According to several reports, Solo's parents divorced when she was 6 and Jeff, a veteran, lived largely on the streets in Seattle or in the woods outside of the city. Solo never considered him homeless, but living by choice.
"I always had a very unique, close relationship with my father," Solo told the
USA Today. "He was the happiest man I've ever known. He enjoyed the simple life. He never judged another person. His heart was pure.
"He'd call me from a pay phone, and we'd pick a place to meet. And I'd make him macaroni and cheese, and we'd sit in the woods in a tent and talk for hours. He understood life and sports, and that's why he knew me so well."
Her high school coach Chris Smith told
kvewtv.com his players are inspired by Solo. Hope offers hope.
"Of course they're very proud of being from the same school that Hope is," Smith said. "And they also try their best to be the same kind of competitor and teammate and the person that she was when she was in high school."
