In 2012, Hope Solo took to her preferred insult battleground, Twitter, to take former Olympian turned commentator Brandi Chastain to task. At issue was Chastain's rather light criticism of Solo's teammate, Rachel Buehler, during an Olympic match between the United States and Columbia.
"As a defender, your responsibilities are to defend ... win the ball, and then keep possession. And that's something that Rachel Buehler actually needs to improve on in this tournament," Chastain said during the broadcast of the game.
Solo hit back with a remarkably vicious response, tweeting, "Lay off commentating about defending and gking until you get more educated @brandichastain the game has changed from a decade ago." And she didn't stop there. A half hour later, she fired off a second tweet, seemingly accusing Chastain of dampening the "spirit of the Olympics" with her commentary.
Chastain's official response was "no comment," but Solo continued to chastise Chastain a few weeks later when she told the New York Daily News, "I think analysts and commentators should bring energy and excitement and passion for the game, and a lot of knowledge, and I think it's important to help build the game, and I don't think Brandi has that."
Chastain's single, tempered response to Solo's barrage of attacks was when she told Us Weekly, "My only comment is I am in London to cover women's soccer for NBC in an honest and objective fashion, and that is what I have done, and will continue to do for the rest of the tournament."
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