U.S. soccer ace Hope Solo has revealed she battled with “complete depression” in 2007 after deaths of friends and family members and losses on the sporting field.
The 31 year old admits her personal problems left her at an all-time low, and ill-advised comments she made about being replaced during a big game then cost her a place on the U.S. national team – which sent her spiralling further down.
Solo tells Fitness magazine, “First I lost my best friend, who was hit by a car while running, then my father, who suffered a fatal heart attack, and then I got kicked off the team in the World Cup for comments to the press about getting replaced during a game. I hit an all-time low. I didn’t leave the house. I was in a complete depression.”
The Olympian admits that it was a long process to find her inner strength again, adding, “It took putting one foot in front of the other every single day to get through it to the point where I made it back on the team and won a gold medal in 2008. You’re always going to survive the pain of loss.”
Solo is set to return to the Olympic Games in July (12), as she and the rest of the U.S. Women’s soccer team defend their gold medal in London.
