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Olympic goalie forced to remove Constitution from custom-made mask

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The U.S. Constitution is not welcome on U.S. Olympic women’s hockey goalie Jessie Vetter’s custom-made mask during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The goalie was forced to repaint her mask in advance of the Olympics to remove the image of the U.S. Constitution and her last name, both which appeared on the back of the helmet, due to International Olympic Committee rules.

“No writings of any kind to promote the country is allowed,” Ron Slater of Slater Lettering and Graphics, who designed the helmet logo with Vetter, explained to InGoal Magazine.

“A sort of ‘our country is better than your country’ [is the] kind of thing that the IOC frowns upon,” he added. “Her name had to come off because they see it as self promotion. They wanted everything to be team based… Our original idea was ‘land of the free, home of the brave,’ and that would have had to have been removed as well.”

Vetters also had to remove the Olympic rings from her the front of her mask. She was allowed to keep an image of the Statue of Liberty on the mask’s forehead as well as an image of an eagle and the USA logo.

This is not the first time an American Olympic goalie has had to readjust a helmet design due to the IOC’s rules.  In 2010 goalies Ryan Miller and Jonathan Quick were required to remove their slogans from their helmets during the Olympics in Vancouver.

Miller’s helmet had read “Miller Time” and Quick’s read “Support Our Troops.”

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