A gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer and an infamous California doctor who protested the blockades and demonized vaccines were among the crowd that invaded the Capitol on Wednesday.
Klete Keller, 38, won gold twice as a relay colleague for Michael Phelps and was easily identified during the turmoil.
The 6-foot 6 ‘swimmer rises above the others fighting the riot police under the Capitol Rotunda, in a footage shot by reporter Julio Rosas.
He is also wearing a Team USA swimming jacket.
Simone Gold was also identified after giving a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court in July with the Frontline Doctors of America – a group she founded last year to speak out against government efforts to contain the coronavirus.
Gold’s video promoting hydroxychloroquine was withdrawn, but not before it was seen by millions of people.
Klete Keller, circled, was among the protesters inside the Capitol on Wednesday
The 38-year-old Las Vegas man was among the crowd, but was not seen attacking the police
Keller, wearing his Team USA swimming jacket and measuring 1.98 m tall, was easily located
At least a dozen people in the pool identified Keller after analyzing the video and images of the rebellion, which showed Keller walking through the crowd, but without engaging in violent behavior.
The Las Vegas-born swimmer now works as a realtor.
A woman who answered the phone at the Colorado and Ohio-based real estate firm, where Keller works, told Reuters: “We are not commenting on anything at the moment.” She then hung up.
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.
He swam in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics.
He won two bronze medals, one silver medal and two gold medals, both of which he won as part of the 800m freestyle relays in 2004 and 2008.
He also set the American record for the 400m freestyle in 2004 and the world record for the 800m relay in 2007. Both records have since been broken.
Keller is photographed collecting his bronze medal in the 400m freestyle at the 2004 Olympics
Keller is seen winning the 4 x 200m freestyle relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
(LR) Klete Keller, Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Peter Vanderkaay from the USA pose after the victory and a new world record in the Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Final during the 12th FINA World Championship in Melbourne, Australia
Keller is pictured with his gold medal after the men’s 200m freestyle at the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championship
Keller struggled to adjust to post-Olympic life after 2008, according to the SwimSwam website.
He told the Olympic Channel podcast that swimming created high expectations for his success, which made him “qualified” in the workplace and a poor worker.
Keller portrayed as part of the 2008 Olympic team
“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a good employee for a long time because I expected everything to happen to me as easily as swimming came,” said Keller.
‘As soon as things started to get worse, I lost my enthusiasm.’
In 2014, he and his wife divorced, after which he lived out of his car for about 10 months.
In an interview with USA Swimming, Keller explained that he had no visitation rights to see his children for four years.
‘It’s a slow preparation to escape responsibility and just let the little things go by every day.
“Eventually, it creates a critical mass and, once that critical mass is built, it is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back,” Keller told the Olympic Channel, according to SwimSwam.
He said his outlook on life was getting lower and lower, but he was saved by his sister Kalyn Keller, 35, also a professional swimmer who represented the United States at the 2004 Olympics.
He worked during that time teaching swimming lessons and running swimming clinics.
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.
Gold, 55, was among those portrayed in an FBI notice posted on Friday.
Simone Gold, founder of America’s Frontline Doctors campaign group, was on Capitol Hill
Gold took a megaphone to shout his theories about the COVID vaccine being dangerous
Gold (circled) can be seen inside the Capitol during Wednesday’s disturbances, which killed five people
Ouro, center, with other doctors protesting against COVID blockades during the summer of 2020
She confirmed to The Washington Post that she is the person portrayed carrying a megaphone on Capitol grounds, but said she thought the building was open and intended to be there to deliver a speech.
Gold said he was concerned that the photos of her inside the Capitol might divert her from her defense work with America’s frontline doctors.
“I’m sorry to be there,” said Gold.
In a video on social media, Gold is seen apparently giving a speech during the riots. She told the newspaper it was the same speech she made at a rally the day before the insurrection, in which she referred to the coronavirus vaccine as a ‘biological experimental agent deceptively called a vaccine’.
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.
The crowd broke into the Capitol Police shortly after Trump urged them to “fight” on his behalf
Police try to contain protesters who are pushing the Capitol door on Wednesday
Trump supporters, instigated by the president himself, broke into the Capitol on Wednesday
Most of the unmasked crowd flooded the Capitol corridors with little police resistance
Capitol police officers point their guns at a door that was vandalized in the Chamber of Deputies during a joint session of Congress
Prosecutors say the charges are just the beginning, with 170 individual cases already open
Five people, including a police officer, died as a result of the violence.
Twenty people have been arrested on federal charges so far, with prosecutors saying that number will increase dramatically.
Authorities opened more than 170 files on subjects identified as individuals who potentially committed crimes on Capitol Hill.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has already served 70 cases, and those already arrested may face more serious crimes.
The FBI is tracking money, travel records, people movements and communications, as well as following tips from the public and images and photos of the scene on January 6.
Michael Sherwin, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, DC, said he hoped hundreds of people could be charged after the attack, and the investigations could take months to fully understand.
Sherwin said on Tuesday that the Justice Department placed an emphasis on investigating protesters who engaged in ‘open combat’ with police during the rape.
A clearer picture of what happened inside the Capitol, said Sherwin, “will come into focus in the coming weeks and days, and I think people will be shocked by some of the blatant contacts that took place inside the Capitol.. ‘
On Sunday, he said they were investigating the organizations involved.
“I would not be surprised if we find vague group affiliations that were organized and had plans in place,” said Sherwin.
‘We saw in some of those individuals that we identified – they look almost paramilitary, right? You have the uniform, you have communication, you have all the paraphernalia.
– These show affiliation indications and a command and control. Therefore, I believe that we will find these marks. ‘