American Klete Keller, who won two Olympic gold medals as Michael Phelps’ relay colleague, was identified as one of Donald Trump’s supporters inside the United States Capitol last week, according to several reports.
The swim news website SwimSwam claimed in a report that at least a dozen people within the sport identified the tall man wearing a United States Olympic team jacket inside the building as Keller after reviewing the video and images of the riot.
USA Swimming did not respond when asked whether it could confirm whether Keller was part of the crowd that entered the legislative complex when lawmakers began certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 3 election over Trump.
Reuters’ attempts to contact Keller were unsuccessful.
A woman who answered the phone at the Colorado and Ohio-based real estate company, where Keller works, told Reuters: “We are not commenting on anything at the moment” and hung up.
In one of the videos, made by a conservative media reporter Townhall, a man identified as Keller is seen among the crowd that police officers are trying to push toward the exits of the US Capitol.
Keller is a five-time Olympic medalist who defeated the great Australian 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 also claimed to have confirmed with sources that Keller was seen at the U.S. Capitol and added that the videos show no violence by the 38-year-old. The Guardian was unable to independently verify that the person in the videos was Keller.
According to the New York Times, Keller deleted his social media accounts, several of which the publication said included a flow of pro-Trump messages in recent years.
Trump urged thousands of supporters to march on the Capitol last Wednesday, causing chaos in which crowds stormed the building and forced the evacuation of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
Five people, including a police officer, died as a result of the violence.