A former Olympian has entered his plea in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot earlier this year. According to CNBC, Klete Keller, an Olympic champion swimmer, pleaded guilty to a single criminal charge related to his participation in the riot that happen on Jan. 6. Keller’s plea to obstructing an official proceeding came after the six other criminal charges against him were dropped by the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.
Keller was seen on a video showing him in the Capitol during the insurrection with Donald Trump supporters. He was wearing a jacket that said “USA” on the back. Keller was involved in a crowd that shoved against police trying to clear the rotunda in the caption. He will be sentenced on a later date and could serve between 21 and 27 months in prison if a judge sees fit.
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When Keller was indicted by a grand jury in February, Sarah Hirshland, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO, released a statement. “First off, I strongly condemn the actions of the rioters at the U.S. Capitol,” Hirshland said in a statement on Twitter. “At home, and around the world, Team USA athletes are held to a very high standard as they represent our country on the field of play and off. What happened in Washington, D.C., was a case where that standard was clearly not met.”
USA Swimming also released a statement, saying: “We respect private individuals’ and groups’ rights to peacefully protest but in no way condone the actions taken by those at the Capitol last week.” Keller, 39, won five Olympic medals in three different Olympics. He won a bronze and silver in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, gold and bronze at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and gold at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
“I regret being so focused on swimming,” Keller told Olympic Talk in 2014 when asked about his career. “It’s really fulfilling, it can be inspiring to yourself and others at times, but at the end, from an individual perspective, it’s just a sport. There’s so much more to life afterwards, so many things that are way more important. Having my kids was incredible. I should have put a lot more time into thinking about careers and what I was doing after swimming. I just got tunnel vision with swimming.”
