Hope Solo: Soccer Star's Dancing Partner Holds Key to DWTS Victory

Hope Solo has made her name by being one of the best goalies in the world, but starting September 19 she will become more famous in this country than ever before.

That is when Dancing With the Stars kicks off, and she has a great chance to win the competition thanks to her dancing partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

Never one to hold back, Solo has openly admitted that she has no dancing ability whatsoever, not that that makes a difference on a show that uses fan voting to determine the winner, but she feels confident that Chmerkovsky will help mask her deficiencies and calm her nerves on the dance floor.

"I know the nerves are going to get to me. I'll need to do that on the dance floor, tuning out the lights, cameras and audience," Solo said. "That's how I do it on the soccer field."

Chmerkovsky was able to get Kirstie Alley into the finals of the competition last season. Not only that, but according to the judges scores they actually danced quite well and earned a perfect score on their last dance.

He begged and pleaded with Solo to do the show because he studied her footwork as she was playing in the World Cup, which is part of what drew Solo into competing on the show. He believes that she has the ability to find the dancer within.

"I saw that Maks had gone on ESPN's SportsCenter trying to recruit me a few months ago, but I was focusing on the World Cup at the time," said Solo. "When I came back home, I looked at my schedule and I could see no reason why I can't do it."

Solo may not be a great dancer right now, but she is disciplined enough to learn how to do it, and her partner wants her to succeed and believes that she can. If he didn't think that way, he would not have begged her to do the show.

A great dancer, which Chmerkovsky clearly is, can help mask his partner's lack of ability on the dance floor. Chmerkovsky has the talent to make Solo look better as a dancer than she is. That will help her as she makes her way through the competition.