American Klete Keller, who won two Olympic gold medals as Michael Phelps’ relay teammate, was identified as one of the Donald Trump supporters in the Capitol last week, according to multiple reports.
Swim news website SwimSwam claimed in a report that at least a dozen people within the sport identified the towering man with a US Olympic team jacket in the building as Keller after watching video and screenshots of the riot.
USA Swimming did not respond to whether they could confirm whether Keller was part of the crowd that entered the legislative complex when lawmakers began certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s Nov. 3 election victory over Trump.
Reuters attempts to reach Keller were unsuccessful.
A woman who answered the phone from the Colorado and Ohio-based real estate agency where Keller works, told Reuters, “We don’t comment on anything at the moment,” then hung up.
In one of the videos, shot by a reporter at the conservative news outlet Townhall, a man identified as Keller is seen among the crowd trying to push police officers to the exits of the Capitol.
Keller is a five-time Olympic medalist who held off Australian great Ian Thorpe on the anchor leg of the 4x200m freestyle relay at the 2004 Athens Games to win gold for the United States.
Swimming world
(@SwimmingWorld)Olympic champion Klete Keller appears to have been in the Capitol during the uprising – https://t.co/JiDwxgSPog pic.twitter.com/9b0zwbLXCH
Swimming World also claimed it had confirmed with sources that Keller had been seen in the Capitol, adding that the videos show no violence on the part of the 38-year-old. The Guardian has not been able to independently verify that the person in the videos was Keller.
According to the New York Times, Keller has deleted his social media accounts, which the publication said had recorded a flood of pro-Trump posts in recent years.
Trump urged thousands of supporters to march to the Capitol on Wednesday, sparking chaos in which crowds broke through the building forcing the evacuation of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.
Five people, including a police officer, died as a result of the disaster.