Hope Solo: ‘DWTS’ Is Harder Than Going Nude!

First Published: October 5, 2011 3:35 PM EDT Credit: ESPN

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Caption Hope Solo on the cover of ESPN’s annual ‘The Body Issue’Soccer star and “Dancing with the Stars” contestant Hope Solo considers her work in the ballroom one of the most difficult things she’s ever done – even harder than posing nude for ESPN magazine’s annual “Body Issue.”

Hope stopped by Access Hollywood Live on Wednesday where she chatted about dropping her clothes for the mag’s racy shoot.

”[It’s] one of the hardest photo shoots I’ve ever done. It took a lot of courage obviously,” she told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover. “Probably for eight hours I was naked in front of eight people.”

The athlete said she eventually got super comfortable baring it all.

“I was so nervous at first that I started screaming when they dropped the robe, and then by the end of the day I was talking to people like it was nothing,” she said of the shots, which will hit newsstands on Friday. “Just standing there nude having conversations.”

Baring her body might have been difficult for Hope at first, but she said it was nothing compared to competing on “DWTS.”

“This is one of the hardest things I’ve never done,” the athlete, who was spared from elimination on Tuesday’s “DWTS” results show, said. “This is harder than the naked photo shoot, I assure you. [I’m] more sure of myself being naked than dancing, absolutely.”

Hope told Billy and Kit that she was sad to see fellow competitor Kristin Cavallari sent packing on Tuesday, but feels confident she won’t suffer the same fate next week.

“I have a lot of fans, and I know they’re going to come out in droves next week after seeing us in the bottom two,” she said, referring to professional partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who she’ll be performing a “Toy Story” themed dance with next week.

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