During the 2016 U.S. Olympic track and field trials, the apparel company Oiselle received demands by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to remove social media posts congratulating its sponsored athlete Kate Grace on qualifying for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The USOC considered them to be unauthorized "Olympic-related advertising" because the photos attached to the posts depicted USOC trademarks, including the Olympic rings and the phrase "Road to Rio". Company CEO Sally Bergesen stated that future posts would remove or obscure references to these trademarks, but argued that their depiction were incidental because the offending material appeared in the venue and on the bibs worn by all athletes at the event, making it intractable to avoid depicting them in photos taken there. She also defended the postings as being news reporting on the achievements of its sponsored athletes, and not necessarily promotion for the brand itself. The onerous restrictions on the promotion of Olympic athletes were one of the factors behind the National Hockey League's decision to prohibit its players from participating in the men's ice hockey tournaments at the 2018 Winter Olympics.