Hope Solo accuses former FIFA president of sexual assault
Just before decorated American soccer player Hope Solo was walking out to give an award, the former head of FIFA grabbed her bottom.
Solo said the incident occurred just she was about to give her teammate, Abby Wambach, a player of the year trophy at a FIFA awards ceremony in January 2013. She was presenting with the former head of the soccer league, Sepp Blatter, who grabbed her.
In an interview published Friday in the Portuguese news outlet Expresso, Solo said, "I had Sepp Blatter grab my ass." She said it occurred just before she presented the women's player of the year award at the Ballon D'or in Switzerland.
She gave more details in the Guardian Friday about how Blatter grabbed her just before the two walked on stage. She had to pull herself together quickly to give the award to Wambach. She said in the Guardian, "I had to quickly pull myself together to present my teammate with the biggest award of her career and celebrate with her in that moment, so I completely shifted my focus to Abby."
Blatter has responded to the allegation as "ridiculous."
Solo, who posted about sexual harassment with a #MeToo post on Instagram last month, told Expresso that that she was nervous about the presentation and she never got to call out the disgraced FIFA president. "After that I didn't see him and that was kind of bad. I didn't get to tell him directly 'Don't ever touch me!' That's the way I've always handled things. Directly," she said.
Solo's story, along with other athletes who have spoken out about abuse, including U.S. Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, show that sexual harassment is not limited to Hollywood and politics.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
