Dancing With The Stars contestant Hope Solo is defending her pro dancer partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who broke one of his toes, for defending herself, trying to explain why his past week’s outburst against the judges, especially Len Goodman, was completely understandable.

DWTS Feud: Maksim Chmerkovskiy vs. Judge Len Goodman

“He’s the only person who has seen my struggles – not the producers, not anybody else – and it’s been a transformation,” Solo tells People. “To put somebody down when they haven’t even recognized how far they’ve come, I think Maks wasn’t okay with that. And he’s a true teammate and he stood up for me and I appreciated it.”

Maksim might have stood up for his partner, but there are different ways of doing that without being pompous and disrespectful. And I’ll give Maks some credit for what he was trying to say yet it just came out very wrong, and that’s exactly why an apology is overdue.

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The judges are there to judge. Len told Hope the Rumba was her “worst dance of the season” comparing it to her previous performance, contrary to Bruno Tonioli, who actually insulted Chaz Bono when he called a “cute little penguin”.

Len was absolutely right on his evaluation – technically, I have no idea; but, as a performance, Hope’s Rumba was plain dull and boring, which should have been blamed on Maksim’s horrible choreography (see video HERE).

DWTS Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s Broken Toe Will Affect Hope Solo?

Anyhow, according to Hope there are no hard feelings since “all the drama makes for good TV.” On the other hand, the soccer star feels like she is unfairly competing against people who have some sort of experience in the business.

“Every single person has been in front of the camera – has been an entertainer. They know how to turn it on and turn it off,” Solo said. “I have no dance experience. [Frontrunner] Ricki Lake’s put in a ton of hard work, but she’s been on Broadway. [Favorite] J.R. [Martinez] has a dance background as well … I’m not in the entertainment world. And this is what the show was originally all about.”

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Poor Hope! Hope might not have stage experience, but she is a professional athlete therefore the long hours of rehearsals are way too easy for her. Now what? Does Hope mean Dancing With The Stars should only let overweight celebs with two left feet compete!?! I don’t think so.

[image: ABC]