Hope Solo: Maksim Chmerkovskiy slapped me during "Dancing with the Stars"

Hope Solo and Maksim Chmerkovskiy attend ESPN the Magazine's 3rd annual Body Issue party on Oct. 6, 2011, in New York.

/ Getty

(CBS News) In her new memoir, soccer star Hope Solo accuses her "Dancing with the Stars" partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy of being too rough with her during rehearsals.

The Olympian, 31, wrote in "Solo: A Memoir of Hope," that the professional dancer "manhandled" her and once slapped her across the face during her time on the show last fall.

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"He manhandled me in rehearsals from the start, pushing me, whacking my stomach, bending my arms roughly. I thought that was just how it went - how dancers worked with each other. I was tough. I could take it," Solo said in the book, according to USA Today.

"But it kept getting worse," she continued. "One day, Maks was trying to put me in a certain position and hit my stomach so hard with his open palm that I had a red handprint there for the rest of the day."

During a rehearsal for the Halloween-themed episode, she wrote, Chmerkovskiy was got so angry with her that he slapped her.

"He wanted my head in a specific position. To achieve that, he slapped me across the face. Hard."

Solo said Chmerkovskiy was "extremely apologetic" after the incident and that ABC offered her a new partner, but she declined. She said she "didn't want to end Maks' career" and feared she'd come off looking like a "prima donna."

Chmerkovskiy's rep had no comment, but the 32-year-old dancer appeared to defend himself against the claims on his Twitter account Thursday:

Always hated hypocrites and liars...but when someone is both AND an opportunist, I just feel bad for them. Can't win at someone's expense...

-- Maksim Chmerkovskiy (@MaksimC) August 16, 2012

On Friday, he followed up with another message:

Life's best lessons are the ones that you smile through.....while they hurt you the most! I'm bullet proof....FIRE AWAY!

-- Maksim Chmerkovskiy (@MaksimC) August 17, 2012

On the upcoming "Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars" season, Chmerkovskiy will be paired with his season 12 partner, Kirstie Alley.

17 Photos

Hope Solo

[paulisfreeeeeeee]

I'm with Hope on this one

[WallowaOregon]

This woman gets a lot of press
talking about how bad other people are

Seems to be a pattern

Not impressed

[lobo62740]

She probably needed to be slapped!!!

[varigdc10]

She is a soccer player, she knows what rough play is, poor baby, she just likes to be handled rough by a guy, this all PR bull !

[nohater]

ABC should be able to clear this up if they speak up about the alleged incident. thinking hope solo is full of herself, always whining, always the victim. but funny thing is there is no evidence, no proof of any of her allegations to date. all that aside, no one held a gun to her head to join dwts or whatever she seems to constantly be whining about in the news or her stupid book.

[Jaylah54200]

ABC offered her a new partner, but she declined. She said she "didn't want to end Maks' career"

_______________

When you let someone continue to physically abuse you, for whatever reason, you've just asked for it to continue.

I have tremendous sympathy for abuse victims, but this wasn't like an abused woman who has no funds or car to escape with her children. This sounds more like the teen that willingly hopped into bed with her boyfriend and, when her father walked in and caught them, cried rape.