While traveling to a training camp in Sweden, Solano was detained by authorities in Paris who reportedly questioned the viability of a Venezuelan ski team and accused him of trying to seek political asylum and sent him back to Venezuela.

Aleksi Valavuori, a Finnish television personality, created a GoFundMe campaign that enabled Solano to travel to Lahti, Finland to compete in the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2017.

[1] Videos of Solano's performance in the 10-kilometer event, which included multiple falls, a broken pole, and much assistance from coaches, circulated on the Internet, leading various media outlets to dub him the "World's Worst Skier"[2] and compare him to Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards and the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team.

Venezuela reprimanded France over their earlier treatment of Solano, with President Nicolás Maduro ordering a "strong protest to the French government for the affront against the Venezuelan athlete."

Within Venezuela, citizens grew angry over concerns that Solano had been funded by Maduro's government to compete during the country's ongoing economic recession.