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Hope Solo will not be disciplined by IOC for ‘cowards’ comment

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Hope Solo made headlines for all the wrong reasons after she and the American women’s national soccer team lost in the quarterfinals to Sweden on Friday.

After the match had concluded, Solo said “we lost to a bunch of cowards,” inciting quite the firestorm on social media.

She was criticizing the style of play Sweden employed under former US head coach Pia Sundhage, which she called “cowardly.”

While many will likely disagree with this ruling, the International Olympic Committee has seen fit to let Solo’s comment slide as a “heat of the moment” infraction. She will not be disciplined, per Karolos Grohmann of Reuters, but the IOC did express disappointment in her remarks.

“It is in heat of the moment. Passions run very high, people say things they then regret,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. “If those were the comments, it is disappointing. We can only keep talking about how athletes treat each other. People are free to say those things. We would not stop them expressing their opinion within boundaries.”

Solo has quite a history of speaking outside the bounds of preferred etiquette, so it’s not surprising whatsoever that she went off the deep end a bit after losing a tough contest against a team she believes is inferior.

The Americans were favored to win the gold once again after winning gold four out of the last five Olympic Games. Needless to say, getting knocked out by Sweden wasn’t part of their plan.

One wonders if Solo, who will be 39 in 2020, will be a part of Team USA’s plans going forward.

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