Soccer Star Solo Speaks To CU Sports Governance Class
March 20, 2018 | Sports Governance, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Hope Solo, considered to be among the best women's soccer players of all time, told a University of Colorado class Tuesday, "Your message is heard all over the world. That's cool to see. Yours is a generation I am inspired by."
Solo, the starting goalkeeper for two U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning teams and a World Cup championship team, spoke to Prof. Roger Pielke's Intro to Sports Governance class. Approximately 200 CU students and staff heard Solo's presentation, then engaged in a question-and-answer session
Pielke's class studies and discusses a wide variety of issues regarding sports, ranging from performance-enhancing drugs to NCAA issues to gender controversies. It is also quickly becoming known for its prominent speakers, a list that has included cyclist Lance Armstrong, NCAA executive Oliver Luck, and Yuliya Stepanova, a former Russian athlete who helped blow the whistle on her country's extensive doping program.
Solo kept Tuesday's class in rapt attention with her talk, centering mainly on her pursuit of bringing equality to women's soccer in America, particularly as governed by the U.S Soccer Federation. Â
Solo, whose long and decorated career also included her share of controversy, has been an outspoken critic of the USSF, which oversees both the women's and men's national teams. She and some of her teammates three years ago began an "Equal Play, Equal Pay" campaign after the women won the 2015 World Cup title, demanding that members of the U.S. Women's team be paid and receive the same perks as the men's team.
While their efforts did gain some concessions in the next collective bargaining agreement, Solo said the new CBA, signed in 2017, still falls far short of putting the women's team on par with the men. She noted that while the U.S. women's team generates more revenue than the men's team — and has enjoyed far more success on the world stage — the disparity in salaries and other perks is still wide.
Solo hasn't played competitively since 2016, but earlier this year launched an unsuccessful bid to become president of the USSF. Now, she continues to publicly lobby for changes in the USSF structure, changes she believes will someday occur.
"We're on the precipice of global change," Solo said. "But it's not going to happen overnight. It's going to take a few years."
Solo implored students to become part of the movement to encourage change in whatever endeavor sparks their passion.
"Anyone can be an activist," she said.
After the lecture and Q&A, Solo took time to pose for photos and answer more questions from students.
Junior Ali O'Donnell, an Integrative Physiology major, said presentations such as Solo's made Pielke's class one of her favorites at CU.
"I've been involved in sports my entire life," O'Donnell said. "I grew up play soccer, I ran cross country, I swam — and this class has brought up topics I didn't know existed. But this, equality and equal treatment in sports, was an issue even when I was growing up. Hearing her talk, you realize that it's an issue some people are still trying to keep under the surface. I think there are a lot of things that are kind of hidden that way in sports and Roger brings them up. We get a chance to learn about them, discuss them and see how they relate to society."
Student Amanda Leonard called the Sports Governance class "honestly the best class I've taken at CU."
"The speakers who come here are incredible," Leonard said. "One of the best things about the class is the topics we discuss are always very relevant to our society and what's happening now. It's very applicable to our lives and what's going on in the real world."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu