U.S. Constitution Removed from Vetter’s Mask per IOC

The International Olympic will tolerate a lot of things, one of them is staging the most expensive Olympics ever next month in a resort town that is hundreds of miles from one of the most dangerous war zones in the world. Aside from cheating and bribery scandals, one thing they don’t tolerate is athletes expressing messages displaying anything political or personal.

How her mask looked originally. (photo credit: IN GOAL)
How her mask looked originally. (photo credit: IN GOAL)

For the third time in the past two Olympics, the IOC returned a goalie mask belonging to an American goalie requiring paint job changes to be made before they can play in the Olympics.

This time it was U.S. WNT goalie Jessie Vetter. What was her violation? She had a painting of the Declaration of Independence on the back plate of her mask. It doesn’t have the entire document, only the famous words “We the People” and some scribble are seen. That was enough to not be approved for the Olympics. In addition, she had to remove her name from her mask because the Olympics frown upon any sort of self-promotion during competitions.

Rule 51.3 of the Olympic Charter provides that ‘no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or areas’.

Vetter is expected to be the starting goalie for the United States. The 28-year-old Wisconsin native had a stellar career for her country. She will be representing the United States in her second Olympics and eighth major international competition. In 2010 she played in four games in Vancouver. She allowed three goals (two being in the gold medal game loss to Canada), and had two shutouts in pool play.

Her mask after the changes were made. (Photo credit: IN GOAL)
Her mask after the changes were made. (Photo credit: IN GOAL)

In 2010, U.S. Men’s team goalies Jonathan Quick and Ryan Miller had to make changes to their mask before playing. Miller had to remove the words “Matt Man” (in honor of his late cousin who died of Leukemia) and “Miller Time” (an alcohol slogan and self-promotion) while Quick was forced to moved the phrase “Support our Troops” from their masks.

I can see the reasons why the IOC would reject those designs, but I feel they are talking from both sides of their asses mouths because Slovakia’s jerseys have the words to their national anthem as the striping on their uniforms. Can anyone from the IOC get back with me on that one? And while we’re on the subject of dumb rules, can they please allow the national federations of sports to use their logo on uniforms? The plain worded USA (even on a striped crest) look boring compared to the classic logo where stripes come out of the S in USA. And the Canada maple leaf jersey isn’t the same without the silhouette of the player in the middle.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *