Hope Solo Opens Up About Her Soccer Career and Controversies in ‘Untold’ (2025)

1981-present

Latest News: Hope Solo Takes Center Stage in a New Netflix Documentary

Hope Solo is the latest subject of of Netflix’s Untold sports documentary series. Untold: Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer centers around the events of the former goalie’s life and 16-year pro career, recounting the victories and controversies that accompanied her rise to fame. It arrived on the streaming platform on September 3.

Solo, an two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champion, was also a lightning rod during her tenure with the U.S. Women’s National Team. She was fired after making disparaging comments about Sweden’s soccer team, which beat the Americans at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The new documentary marks the first time Solo, 43, has spoken about her tumultuous past on camera.

Netflix began its sports anthology series in December 2021. Previous subjects include boxers Jake Paul and Christy Martin, as well as former track star Caitlyn Jenner. In addition to Solo, the fourth volume of Netflix’s Untold features late NFL great Steve McNair and Connor Stalions, a former University of Michigan football coach involved in a sign-stealing scandal.

Hope Solo is a former goalkeeper for the U.S Women’s National Team, which won two Olympic gold medals and one FIFA Women’s World Cup title during her tenure. A former forward, the soccer player became one of the top goalies during her college years at the University of Washington. She helped the USWNT bring home back-to-back gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the London Games four years later. In 2015, Solo delivered a near-record performance to help the Team USA win the World Cup and personally earned her second Golden Glove Award. At times, Solo has been mired in legal and professional controversy. Her career with the national team abruptly ended after she made controversial comments at the 2016 Olympics. Today, she lives in North Carolina with her husband and two kids.

FULL NAME: Hope Amelia Stevens
BORN: July 30, 1981
BIRTHPLACE: Richland, Washington
SPOUSE: Jerramy Stevens (2012-present)
CHILDREN: Vittoria and Lozen
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Leo

Hope Amelia Solo was born on July 30, 1981, in Richland, Washington. Her mom, Judy, was an environmental scientist and handywoman and her father, Jeffrey, was a Vietnam War veteran and children’s counselor.

Jeffrey led a troubled life. He was serving time in prison for embezzlement when Hope was conceived during a conjugal visit. He was mostly in and out of his daughter’s life. When Hope was 6 years old, her parents divorced, and Judy was granted full custody of her and her older brother, Marcus.

Following the divorce, Hope’s father became homeless, living on the streets and woods of Seattle. A year later, Jeffrey kidnapped Hope and Marcus after picking them up from a Little League game. The three of them stayed in a hotel in Seattle for three days until Judy called the cops. They were soon discovered at a bank, and Jeffrey was arrested immediately.

Despite his erratic presence, Jeffrey was the one who taught 5-year-old Hope how to play soccer. Her mother supported her interest in the sport. On Mother’s Day in 2015, Hope wrote a blog post praising Judy for taking “really good care” of her and her brother. However, as kids, she and Marcus had a confrontational relationship. In June 2015, she told ESPN Marcus used to attack her and would turn their house into “a war zone.”

Years later, Hope reconnected with her father and found out that he had another family, including her half-siblings Teresa and David. After being falsely suspected of murder, he died of heart failure the night before the 2007 World Cup.

Although she rose to fame as a gold-medal-winning goalie, Solo started out as a forward on the Richland High School soccer team. She scored 109 goals in this position and was twice named an All-American by Parade magazine.

Becoming a Goalie in College

Solo moved into the goalkeeper spot for the University of Washington Huskies and went on to dominate the Pac-10 conference. In 1999, as a freshman, she was named the team’s rookie of the year after making 77 saves and recording three shutouts in just 12 games.

Solo earned All-American honors in her last three years from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (now United Soccer Coaches). Additionally, as a senior, she was nominated for the Hermann Trophy, given to the top male and female collegiate soccer player in the country. Solo finished her Washington career as the university’s all-time leader in shutouts and saves.

U.S. Women’s National Team

Solo first played with the U.S. Women’s National Team while still in college. She missed a quarter during her freshman year in 2000 and took part in an Olympic residency camp. Four years later, Solo was selected as an alternate for the U.S. Olympic Team, but she never made it on to the field at the 2004 Athens Games.

Despite this disappointment, Solo continued to excel in her sport. She became the top goalkeeper the following year, playing 1,054 minutes without permitting an opposing goal.

2007 World Cup

As a leading member of the U.S. National Team, Solo was irate when her coach decided to bench her for the semifinal match against Brazil during the 2007 World Cup. The Americans lost the game, and Solo publicly aired her frustration. “It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that. There’s no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves,” she told NBC Sports. After this outburst, Solo was let go from the team for the rest of the competition.

Winning Gold at the 2008 Olympics

Solo was back in fighting shape the next year. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, she continually beat back the Brazilian attack to help the USWNT win the gold medal.

In 2011, Solo recovered from a shoulder injury in time for the start of World Cup play. Following an early loss to Sweden, the American women surged all the way to the final, before losing to Japan on penalty kicks. For her efforts, Solo won the Golden Glove Award, as the tournament’s best goalkeeper, and the Bronze Ball Award for her overall play.

2012 Olympics and 2015 World Cup

Just before the 2012 Olympics, Solo ran into trouble. She tested positive for a banned substance, a diuretic, and explained she had taken the medication as part of a premenstrual treatment prescribed by her doctor. She also said she didn’t know it contained the banned drug. After working with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Solo was given a warning for what she called “an honest mistake,” and was cleared to compete at the Olympics. “As someone who believes in clean sport, I am glad to have worked with the USADA to resolve this matter, and I look forward to representing my country,” she told NBC Sports.

At the 2012 Summer Games in London, to the roar of nearly 80,300 soccer fans—the largest soccer crowd in Olympics history—Solo won her second consecutive gold medal with the USWNT, in a revengeful, 2-1 victory against Japan. Solo showed no mercy during the match, stopping 12 of the 13 shots she faced. The victory marked the fourth of five Olympic titles won by Team USA since women’s soccer was first included in the Olympics in 1996.

Solo started off 2015 on shaky ground. She was suspended for 30 days, beginning in late January, after her husband was charged with driving her while under the influence during a team training camp. The goalie missed two matches but was later reinstated to the team.

Solo was again a force for the Americans during their triumphant run to the 2015 World Cup title. After allowing a goal in the opening match against Australia, she shut out the opposition for a near-record 540 minutes until Japan scored twice in the final. For her outstanding play, she won her second straight World Cup Golden Glove Award.

Wage Discrimination Lawsuit

In March 2016, Solo joined several of her teammates in filing a complaint of wage discrimination against the United States Soccer Federation, citing inequities between its compensation for players on the women’s and men’s national teams. “The numbers speak for themselves,” she said in a statement at the time. “We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships.”

Two years later, Solo filed her own federal lawsuit against the USSF for violations of the Equal Pay Act and sex discrimination. Meanwhile, Solo ran for president of the USSF in early 2018, before losing to its vice president at the time, Carlos Cordeiro.

While 28 of her former team members formally sued the federation in 2019, Solo wasn’t part of the lawsuit. In 2022, the team settled for $24 million, part of which Solo was entitled to as a Title VII claimant. However, she filed a notice of objection, saying the settlement wouldn’t guarantee equal pay. She also argued the portion of the settlement funds going to lawyers’ fees was “unreasonable and disproportionate.”

Legal news service Law360 reported in 2023 that Solo’s individual lawsuit was dismissed at the request of both parties.

2016 Olympics and Contract Termination

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Solo earned her 200^th career cap, or international appearance, in an early win over France. However, she was criticized for allowing two goals in a draw against Colombia and was unable to save her team when a quarterfinal loss to Sweden was decided by penalty kicks. Shortly afterward, she insisted the best team did not win and called her opponents a “bunch of cowards” for their style of play.

The fallout from her commentary was greater than anticipated: On August 24, U.S. Soccer announced Solo was being suspended for six months and that her contract would be terminated immediately.

In response, Solo released a statement that read: “For 17 years, I dedicated my life to the U.S. Women’s National Team and did the job of a pro athlete the only way I knew how—with passion, tenacity, an unrelenting commitment to be the best goalkeeper in the world, not just for my country, but to elevate the sport for the next generation of female athletes. In those commitments, I have never wavered. And with so much more to give, I am saddened by the federation’s decision to terminate my contract.”

The abrupt and controversial end of her career didn’t negate Solo’s accomplishments throughout her career. She played in more than 200 games, a record among goalies in international play. In 2022, Solo was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Solo is currently married to former NFL player Jerramy Stevens. She and her husband have two kids.

In 2011, Solo began dating Jerramy, who had played tight end for the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The couple announced their engagement within two months and were married on November 13, 2012. While she legally took her husband’s last name, she still uses her maiden name professionally.

Both Hope and Jerramy have encountered legal issues. The night before their wedding, Jerramy was arrested for investigation of assault following a physical altercation between eight people at a party. He was released soon after when a Kirkland Municipal Court judge determined a lack of evidence in the case.

Early on the morning of June 21, 2014, Solo was arrested on two counts of domestic violence following a confrontation with her half-sister, Teresa, and 17-year-old nephew at their home in Kirkland, Washington. Although the judge dismissed the case on procedural grounds in January 2015, the star goalie encountered more trouble shortly afterward when her husband was arrested for driving a USWNT team van while intoxicated, with Solo in the vehicle as a passenger. She was subsequently suspended from the team for 30 days.

Just before the start of the World Cup in June 2015, a new report surfaced with details about Solo’s aggressive behavior toward family members and police during the previous summer’s domestic violence incident. An appeal was filed, and in October 2015, a Washington state appeals court reinstated the domestic violence charges. Solo subsequently sought a legal review of the decision on the grounds of government misconduct. The charges were ultimately dismissed in May 2018.

In June 2019, Solo revealed she had suffered a miscarriage while pregnant with twins the previous year. The resulting complications led to the removal of one of her fallopian tubes. However, in March 2020, she gave birth to twins Vittorio and Lozen.

Two years later, in March 2022, Solo was arrested in North Carolina for driving under the influence of alcohol with her two children in back seat. Her blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit. That July, she pleaded guilty to driving while impaired and was sentenced to 30 days in prison. However, her sentence was waived after completing a 30-day stint in rehab. Solo later shared the experience was “easily the worst mistake of my life,” adding “I underestimated what a destructive part of my life alcohol had become.

The star goalkeeper showed off another side of her personality in 2011 when she competed on Dancing with the Stars. Appearing on the reality competition’s 13th season, Solo danced against such celebrities as David Arquette, Chaz Bono, and Ricki Lake. She did well enough with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy to make it to the show’s semifinals.

In August 2012, Solo published an autobiography with Ann Killion titled Solo: A Memoir of Hope. The book gave fans an inside look at her life and career.

Following her sudden firing from the USWNT in 2016, Solo has somewhat stayed involved in soccer. She served as a commentator for the BBC at the 2019 World Cup. During an interview, she criticized USWNT head coach Jill Ellis for having poor leadership skills, candidly saying Ellis “cracks under pressure.” Solo played for Ellis for two years, from 2014 to 2016.

In March 2022, Solo launched a sports podcast on SiriusXM called Hope Solo Speaks, where she revealed she had moved to North Carolina with her family. Overshadowed by news of her DWI, however, the podcast was short-lived, airing its final episode in August 2023.

Solo most recently stepped back into the public eye for the Netflix documentary Untold: Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer, which began streaming in early September 2024.

As of May 2024, Solo has an estimated net worth of $3 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

• I don’t like anyone telling me how I’m supposed to feel or think or what I’m supposed to say. If I had meekly accepted what others told me, my life would be radically different... I would have viewed myself as a failure.
• Losing sucks. I’m really bad at it.
  

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