Klete Keller, who won two gold medals in the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay was identified as one of the protesters who breached the Capitol Building on 6 January, the New York Times reported.
It comes as a video, posted by Julio Rosas, a senior reporter for Townhall.com, on Twitter, showed a man wearing a US Olympic team jacket and resembling the double gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer, confronting police officers. According to the NYT, Keller's former teammates and coaches identified him on the video precisely because of the jacket.
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 6, 2021
As of now, Keller is said to have deleted all his social media accounts.
For several years, Keller has worked as an estate contractor for Hoff & Leigh.
Keller was a member of three US Olympic teams. He won a bronze medal at the Sydney Games in 2000, and two gold medals as a relay teammate of Michael Phelps at the Athens Games and the Beijing Games respectively.
On 6 January, Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill as Congress was certifying President-elect Joe Biden's victory. The incident resulted in five deaths and a large number of injuries.
In the wake of the Capitol Incident, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have identified and arrested dozens of people who breached the Capitol Building. The suspects have been charged with numerous offences, including entering or remaining in a restricted building, unlawful entry, and assaulting federal law enforcement officers.
