Hope Solo, a former goalkeeper for the US women’s national soccer team, is entering an alcohol rehab program, she announced Friday, weeks after she was found passed out behind the wheel of her car with her children in the backseat.
In a statement posted to her Twitter, Solo, 40, said she had asked the National Soccer Hall of Fame to postpone her induction to next year and that she was voluntarily entering an in-patient alcohol treatment program to address what she described as “challenges with alcohol.”
“At this time, my energies and focus are totally directed to my health, healing and taking care of my family,” the retired soccer star said. “I want to thank the Hall of Fame for their support and for understanding my decision.”
Solo, who is known as one of the — if not the — best goalkeeper in US soccer history, was arrested on March 31 on suspicion of driving while impaired, resisting a public officer, and misdemeanor child abuse. She had allegedly been passed out for more than an hour in a Walmart parking lot, with the engine of her car running and while her 2-year-old twins were in the backseat, when she was noticed by a passerby.
The Associated Press reported that a responding officer with the Winston-Salem Police Department could smell alcohol on her breath, but when he attempted to administer a field sobriety test, Solo refused. A blood sample was taken instead.
Solo’s arrest was the latest in a series of run-ins with law enforcement over the last 10 years.
In 2014, she was arrested after she was accused of assaulting her sister and her nephew in an incident at her home in Seattle. She pleaded “not guilty” to domestic violence charges that were later dismissed.
In another incident, the soccer star was handed a 30-day suspension after her husband, former NFL player Jerramy Stevens, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. Solo was in the car with Stevens when he was apprehended while driving a US Soccer team van.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/skbaer/hope-solo-alcohol-treatment-dwi-arrest