Hope Solo: The US Women's Soccer Team

Hope Solo, a goalie for the United States Women’s National Team, as well as the Seattle Reign FC in the National Women’s Soccer League, is widely regarded as the best goalkeeper the women’s game has ever seen. With over 100 career shutouts on the international level, and numerous individual and team awards including two FIFA Golden Glove awards and a World Cup, it’s hard to deny her prowess. Solo has been on the national stage for over a decade now, and while heralded as a world class player, her career has been fraught with controversy. Solo: A Memoir of Hope was published in August 2012 and provides a unique look into the major events in Hope Solo’s life through her own eyes.

The odds were always against us, yet we persevered. When everybody told us “no, it cannot be done”, we stared right back at them and simply smiled while nodding because we always did our talking on the field, where it really matters. This is a story of how the Dulles Varsity Soccer Team shut up Clements without having to open our mouth.

When it comes to sports men and women are rarely given equal opportunities to excel. This is the case in soccer specifically, as many individuals over look women’s soccer. Women are having to play on turf fields which is causing more injuries compared to men playing on natural grass. Men also make more money per match and they receive money if they lose, whereas the women do not receive any money if they lose a match. While women are becoming more successful, the men’s team has been around longer and bring in more media coverage and endorsements for the league. Despite the discrepancies found in media coverage of both teams, the US soccer federation and Federation International Football Association should provide equal opportunities for both men’s and women’s soccer teams.

The Olympics have not only been a prized achievement for many athletes throughout the years, but have been a huge influence of societies all over the world through producing viewpoints, social roles, and societal hierarchies. Observing the continuities and discontinuities within the Olympic games one can gain clarity on how past events still shape the present. Recently new rules set by the International Associations of Athletics Federations (IAAF) have declared that female athletes with abnormally high rates of testosterone must lower their hormone levels or be forced to compete with men. This rule amendment in women’s sports highlights only a small factor of how women have been segregated and discriminated against by a higher power. Through

The pay in both the professional women's soccer team and the professional men's soccer team is very unequal. The players on the women's team get paid nearly a fourth less which is very surprising considering how good they are. Both teams play the same game do the same sport and represent the same team so why aren't they payed the same? I believe the women's team should be paid the same as the men's or even more because of their amazing results.

From a young age, children are conditioned to always think about what they want to be when they grow up. Many of them dream to be a ballerina, firefighter, or an astronaut. With age comes maturity, and those aspirations pass, but simultaneously new, more realistic ones arise. To reach these new goals, these children work toward their dream through dedication, which can be seen in the studying or training they do. In today’s society females have more opportunity to do what they dream. There are young women who are assiduously working to get a college degree and a steady job. Then, there are also women who are training to become a professional athlete, with the aspiration of becoming a member of the United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT). In today’s society, women can pursue their goals, however, if compared to men’s sports, there can be differences seen that keep women from reaching full potential, equality, and their dreams.

This was it. The Aviano Softball team of 2015 has worked so hard during the season and were on their way to the championship game. I along was part of the team for the past three years, and I’ve seen how we have grown from underdogs to the next powerhouse of Division II. During the first day, we mercy ruled AFNORTH and Ansbach. The second day arrived to determine where we would be in the semifinals, and we won against Hohenfels. The next morning was competitive; the final game was nerve wracking but it was all worth it in the end.

Sports are an extremely important part of the Georgia Southern culture. Every collegiate level sport Georgia Southern offers packs out stadiums and arenas almost every day of the week. Any student who may not have been given the opportunity to play at the collegiate level is eligible to play club sports, which is an excellent alternative.

Hope Solo, is the American soccer goalkeeper, a three time Olympic gold medalist and a two time World Cup gold medalist. Ever since she started dribbling a soccer ball, she has dreamed of winning multiple Olympic and World Cup medals; however she is not willing to sacrifice her personal health and the health of her future children. Solo has reported in an exclusive interview with Sports Illustrated (2015) that if the 2016 Rio Olympics were held right now she would boycott traveling to compete due to the epidemic of Zika. Currently the outbreak of the virus might have an unfortunate effect on the outcome of the Olympics- especially if the best goalkeeper in the world refuses to attends.

The U.S. women’s soccer team filed a complaint against U.S. Soccer for wage discrimination, claiming they make roughly 40% of what their male counterparts do. This is only the beginning of a trend in wage disparity in the Major Soccer League. The National Women’s Soccer League, or NWSL, has a pay ceiling per player of just $37,800. The men in Major League Soccer make an average of more than $300,000 with a median of about $100,000. The teams in the NWSL have a salary cap of $265,000, but for the men it is more than $3 million. The extremity of the wage gap is clearly depicted in CNN Money, the report states that the “amounts female American players receiving equate to less than 6 cents for every $1 earned by the German men”. The US women’s

P.6 Annotated Bibliography Brookshire, Bethany. “Women in Sports Are Often Underrepresented in Science.” Science News, 6 June 2016 In the article “Scicurious” Brookshire gives her intake in why women are being underrepresented in sport science. As she speaks about different researches including women choosing to use more men than women making the data found more bias to one sex than the other.

In the last one hundred years women have made tremendous inroads in many facets of life. Of that there can be little doubt. Women may now hold jobs, own property and participate in professional sports. Today women can compete in sports, once a vestige of male domination; there is now room for women in that arena. But even today women in sports are not portrayed in the same light as their male counterparts. To a large degree this is because of today's cultural ideal of women.

Women. Men. They are both a unique and special being that is on earth. In a perfect society, men and women would have the same physical strength and they would be completely equal. The idea of women and men being able to play against each other is wonderful but realistically it might not work out as great. Of course, women can do anything men can do, but in a competitive situation like this, the results of this change could bring forth more negative impacts than positive ones. In professional sports, women and men should be kept separate due to being biologically different and because of the possibility of the quality of the performances in the sports decreasing.

Women have always been the minority in the world even today: that is in the work force or even in sports. Title IX, an act that was made by the United States Congress in 1972, said that no one should be denied to play, receive financial aid, or discriminate to any education program or activity that pertains to only one sex (Senne 1). This act was a step towards improving female participation and lessening discrimination, but the stereotypes that most of society believes in still exist. This is one of the main reasons why women are discriminated when it comes to sports; by limited payroll, limited media coverage, and stereotypes.

“You throw like a girl” this observable phenomenon is intended as an insult. But what does it mean to be “like a girl”? When did being a girl receive a negative connotation? Because people live in a sexist society, all girls are considered almost physically handicapped. Oftentimes guys believe that they are better at athletics based on the fact that they are males. Reasoning that someone is better at something based on gender, is sexist. Sports empower women giving them confidence and strength in the face of discrimination, sexism and objectification in society. This Paper will explain how girls around the world are beating sexism by beating superstition. Showing how women are empowering themselves through sports. By doing sports women gain freedom, power, strength, respect and dignity. Women athletics are defeating discrimination and closing the gap between men and women around the world.