US Olympic swimmer who stormed the Capitol was a ‘lost soul,’ his former teammate says
Once an extraordinary swimmer, Klete Keller is now an ordinary citizen, and the only reason this former Olympian is making the rounds is because he was one of the many who stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.
“I always thought he was just a lost soul. I think a lot of people who participated in that were lost souls,” Keller’s former U.S. Olympic teammate, Tom Malchow, told me this week. “He was the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet. If you asked him to do anything he’d do it for you.”
HBO produced a documentary about famous Olympic athletes who are basically screwed up because they were Olympic athletes.
The dais for that documentary included Michael Phelps, Bode Miller, Sasha Cohen, Apolo Ohno, Lolo Jones, Shaun White, Jeremy Bloom and not included was Klete Keller.
He may as well have been on there.
(Full disclosure: How does a sports columnist in Fort Worth, Texas have any connection to Tom Malchow, who was roommates with Keller during the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics? I attended the University of Kansas with Malchow’s wife, Christie.
On Friday night, she handed her husband the phone to talk about his former roommate.)
“It was surreal to see him on TV. I mean, that’s not something you ever expect,” said Malchow, 44, who swam for Team USA in the ‘96, ‘00 and ‘04 Olympics. He currently lives near Seattle with his wife and their two daughters.
He and his wife identify themselves as political independents.
“First of all, what took place was terrible. I can’t believe that it happened. That’s not the America I know. And then you’re seeing this guy you roomed with wearing Olympic gear in the middle of it. That’s the gear I wore.”
In the many videos of the incident that are floating all over the Internet, Keller is hard to miss, even in the chaos. He is the bearded, 6-foot-6 giant who stands over everyone in every single frame.
Keller has declined to be interviewed yet.
Karen Crouse of Yahoo Sports spoke with Keller’s former coach Mark Schubert at USC. Schubert told Crouse that he has since spoken to Keller, and said “He apologized to me. He kept repeating, ‘You’ve done so much for me, and I let you down.’ He kept saying over and over, ‘I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.’”
In the video clips of the jammed, 360-degree confrontation, Keller also stands out because of his green Olympic jacket. It’s a jacket Malchow owns, and hangs in one of his closets.
That’s another part of this that bothers Malchow, and other Olympians.
There is a way to express patriotism and love of country. Breaching the Capitol is criminalism. Not patriotism.
“We swam for the United States. We took great pride in representing our country in an international event,” Malchow said. ”That all meant a lot to us.”
Swimming for Team USA, Keller won two bronze medals, one silver medal and two gold medals in the three Olympics he participated, ‘00, ‘04 and ‘08.
Keller is now charged in U.S. District court with a count of obstructing law enforcement, knowingly entering a building without lawful authority, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Malchow said the two maintained close contact for several years after his Olympic career was over. But then, as so often happens, life gets busy with kids, careers, etc., and the two had not spoken in several years.
Nonetheless, Malchow never could have predicted he was going to see his former roommate in that Capitol chaos.
He couldn’t necessarily guess why Keller participated in the event. What he could predict was that once swimming was done for Keller, he was vulnerable to join the long list of Olympians, and other athletes, who struggle with life once the only life they have known is finished.
Malchow, who attended the University of Michigan, also trained with Keller in Ann Arbor as well as swimming with him in the Olympics.
“I thought he was a lost soul when we were at Michigan together,” Malchow said. “Everything was swimming. And, you’re right, you see it all the time. These guys who have just been doing one thing for years and years, and everything they need is done for them, and they are waited on hand and foot for whatever they need.
“Because it’s all about them doing that one thing. Once it’s over, they need to find some way to stay connected to it. I found something like I liked, so when I was done I could move on. But not everyone does it, and it can be very hard.”
Klete Keller was once an extraordinary swimmer who became an ordinary citizen, and now is extraordinary again for the worst reasons.
This story was originally published January 16, 2021 at 5:26 PM.
