USOC dismisses Hope Solo's complaint about US Soccer
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) The U.S. Olympic Committee has dismissed a complaint by former U.S. women's national team goalkeeper Hope Solo that accused the U.S. Soccer Federation of illegally favoring Major League Soccer.
Solo filed the complaint in January when she was among the candidates running for USSF president, a race she lost the following month to Carlos Cordeiro.
In a ruling signed Tuesday and released Thursday, a panel of three arbitrators ruled Solo had failed to pursue and exhaust her claims within the USSF grievance process, a necessary step under the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act. That grievance process would have had the case heard by a member of the American Arbitration Association or of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The USOC panel was chaired by USOC board member Jim Benson, a former CEO of John Hancock Life Insurance Co., and also included U.S. Ski and Snowboard chief legal officer Alex Natt and figure skater Mark Ladwig, a member of the USOC athletes' advisory council.
Solo's complaint also accused the USSF of lacking financial transparency, responsibility to its members and independence and of failing to provide equal support for women and sufficient opportunities for athletes with ambulatory cerebral palsy, stroke or traumatic brain injury.
