Suspended sentence for Hope Solo over drunk-driving incident

Former US women's national soccer team goalkeeper Hope Solo has received a 24-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to a charge of driving while impaired.

The case stems from a March incident in which Solo was arrested in Winston-Salem, North Carolina when she was reportedly found passed out in the driver's seat of her car with the engine running and her 2-year-old twins in the backseat.

Charges of misdemeanour child abuse and resisting a public officer were dropped, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

The suspended sentence credits Solo with 30 days as time served for her stay while undergoing rehab for alcohol abuse in April. Solo was fined $2,500 and ordered to pay $600 for lab fees.

Solo posted yesterday on Twitter, "It's been a long road, but I'm slowly coming back from taking time off. I pride myself in motherhood and what my husband and I have done day in and day out for over two years throughout the pandemic with two-year old twins.

"While I'm proud of us, it was incredibly hard and I made a huge mistake. Easily the worst mistake of my life. I underestimated what a destructive part of my life alcohol had become.

"The upside of making a mistake this big is that hard lessons are learned quickly. Learning these lessons has been difficult, and at times, very painful."

Solo, 40, made 202 appearances for the US team from 2000-2016, helping the team win the World Cup in 2015 and Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012.

In a career that was as decorated on the field as it was controversial off the field, Solo was dismissed from the national squad for good after criticising the Swedish team for their tactics while beating the US team at the 2016 Olympics.

Solo was an analyst for RTÉ Sport during the 2018 men's FIFA World