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Kelly CohenESPN
According to video footage, Klete Keller, a two-time U.S. Olympic swimming gold medalist, appeared amid riots that stormed the U.S. Capitol last week.
The video appears to show Keller, 38, without a mask and wearing a Team USA jacket during the riot. Keller was part of the U.S. swimming team at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, anchoring the 4×200 pounds. In 2004, in Athens, he remarkably retained Australian Ian Thorpe to help his team, which featured Michael Phelps, win gold.
A spokesman for USA Swimming, who was reached by ESPN, could neither confirm nor deny that Keller was seen in the video, which was first reported by swimming news site SwimSwam. According to a New York Times report, several former teammates and coaches said they recognized Keller in the video.
A Townhall Media reporter shared the now viral video from inside the Capitol Roundabout on Jan. 6, and presumably Keller appears around 12 p.m.
“[W]We respect the rights of individuals and private groups to protest peacefully, but in no case do we accept the actions taken by those at the Capitol last week, “a U.S. Swimming spokesman told ESPN on Tuesday.
Keller had recently worked as a real estate agent in Colorado Springs with Hoff & Leigh. His employment was confirmed at SwimSwam, but his profile has already been removed.
Keller has deleted all of his social media accounts, even though in the past he had posted his fervent support for President Donald Trump. The most recent public photos of him on Instagram are from 2017 at an event outside Boston.
January 6 riots by pro-Trump supporters in protest of President-elect Joe Biden’s election certification killed five people, including a U.S. Capitol police officer. Dozens of people have since been arrested and the FBI said Tuesday they had opened more than 160 cases and were investigating more than 100,000 digital evidence they have received.