Klete Derik Keller (born March 21, 1982) is an American former competitive swimmer. Before retiring from swimming in 2008, he won five Olympic medals including two golds, at the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Summer Olympics in the 400-meter freestyle and the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.
In January 2021, Keller took part in the January 6 United States Capitol attack. Later he was arrested and charged with three offenses stemming from his participation. He was indicted on seven charges by a grand jury the next month, and later pleaded guilty to a single felony charge as part of a plea bargain. In December 2023, he was sentenced to three years of probation and six months of home detention. On January 20, 2025, the first day of the second presidency of Donald Trump, he was granted a federal pardon as part of Trump's pardon of January 6 United States Capitol attack defendants.
Early life Keller was born March 21, 1982, in Las Vegas to mother Karen and father Kelly. Both parents were intercollegiate athletes at Arizona State University in Tempe; his father played basketball and his mother swam. Klete's older sister, Kelsey, swam for University of Washington, and his younger sister, Kalyn, was on the swim team for the University of Southern California (USC) and competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Klete Keller grew up in Phoenix and graduated from Arcadia High School in Phoenix in 2000.
Per Jon Urbanchek, who coached Keller in his later swimming career, "he had a rough time at home". Others have corroborated that Keller had a dysfunctional home life.
Early swimming career At the 1998 Summer Nationals, Keller was named "Rookie of the Meet". At the 1999 U.S. National Swimming Championships, he won bronze in the 1500m freestyle, behind Chris Thompson and Erik Vendt. Keller also competed in the 400-meter freestyle, placing fifth behind Chad Carvin, Erik Vendt, Uğur Taner, and Mark Warkentin.
Keller won gold in the 5k open water race at the 1999 Phillips 66 National Championships with a time of 46:51, earning him a spot in the same event the 1999 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Sydney. In the 5k open water race at the 1999 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, Keller won gold with a time of 55:42. Keller was also a member of the 1999 United States National Junior Team.
Collegiate swimming career Keller attended the University of Southern California for two years from 2000 to 2001, but left school to focus on swimming. While at USC, he won multiple individual and relay Pac-10 and NCAA Championships in the 200, 500 and 1,650-yard freestyle, as well as freestyle relays. He was a four-time NCAA champion. In both 2000 and 2001, Keller was named to the United States swimming "All-Star Team".
Keller won a bronze medal in the 400 meter freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics. He was one of many 2000 Olympic swimming medalists from The Race Club World Team, a summer swimming camp in Florida. Also in 2000, he won the summer national title in the 400 meter freestyle. In 2001, Keller won the spring national title in the 200 meter freestyle. Later that year at the World Aquatics Championships, Keller won an individual bronze medal in the 200 meter freestyle and a team bronze medal in the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay.
Professional swimming career Keller left USC after his sophomore season, when he went professional, forfeiting his final two years of collegiate sports eligibility. Afterward, he trained until 2007 at Club Wolverine, run at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, under Jon Urbanchek and later Bob Bowman. Urbanchek was the coach of the three Olympic swimming teams on which Keller competed. Late into his swimming career, Keller cited Urbanchek as his greatest influence, remarking, "He's the type of man I want to be like when I'm older." After going professional, Keller competed in two more Summer Olympics, in 2004 and 2008. Twice during his career, he was the cover athlete of Swimming World. In 2015, the Reno Gazette-Journal named Keller as the most decorated Olympian ever born in Nevada. In addition to the two times he made the team during his collegiate career, Keller, Keller was named to the United States Swimming "All-Star Team" four more times after going professional (in 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006). Towards the end of his swimming career, Keller was reported to train for five hours every day, six days per week.
At the 2002 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, Keller won an individual bronze medal in the 400 meter freestyle race and a team silver medal in the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay. At the 2002 FINA Short Course World Championships, he won gold in the 200 meter freestyle and the 200 400 meter freestyle, as well as bronze in the 800 meter freestyle. He also won the summer 2002 national title in the 400 meter freestyle and was named to the United States Swimming "All-Star Team". At the 2003 World Aquatics championships, Keller was on the gold-winning American team in the 800 m freestyle.Worlds 2003 results: Men's 800 Free Relay -- final published by Omega Timing (official timer) on July 23, 2003. Retrieved June 26, 2013. He placed fifth in the 400 meter freestyle.Worlds 2003 results: Men's 400 Free -- Final from Omega Timing (official timer). Published July 20, 2003; retrieved June 6, 2013. He competed in the 200 meter freestyle, being eliminated after placing last in the semifinals.Worlds 2003 results: Men's 200m Freestyle Semifinals , from OmegaTiming.com (official timer of the 2003 Worlds); Retrieved February 11, 2010. Also in 2003, Keller won the spring national title in the 400 meter freestyle.
During the 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the Athens Summer Olympics in 2004, Keller held off a charging Ian Thorpe in the anchor leg to win the race by 0.13 seconds. It was the first time Australia had been beaten in the event in over seven years. In January 2016, Andy Ross of the magazine Swimming World named it as one of the greatest Olympic relays of all-time. The American relay of Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay, and Keller were undefeated in competition from those Olympics onward. Vanderkaay, Larsen Jensen, Erik Vendt, and Keller made up the core of the premier American mid-distance/distance freestyle swimmers. Keller also won bronze in 400 meter freestyle. At the Olympics, Keller placed fourth in the 200 meter freestyle. Also in 2004, Keller was named to the United States swimming "All-Star Team".
In 2005, Keller was ranked 7th in the world in the 200m freestyle, 4th in the 400 meter freestyle, and 78th in the 100 meter freestyle. At the 2005 World Aquatics championships, he won a gold in the 4×200 m freestyle. Also in 2005, he won the United States summer national title in the 800 meter freestyle. In 2005, he won the summer national title in the 400 meter freestyle and was on the United States swimming "All-Star" team. In his 2006 season, at the U.S. championships he achieved the top time in the world in the 400 freestyle (3:44.27). For the season, he was ranked 1st in the world in the 400 meter freestyle, 3rd for the 200 meter freestyle, and 52nd for the 100 meter freestyle. At the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, Keller won three medals. He won gold in the 200 meter freestyle, was a member of the gold-winning United States team in the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay, and won bronze in the 400 meter freestyle. Keller also competed in the 100 meter freestyle (coming eleventh in the heats), and the 50 meter freestyle (coming 32nd in the heats). In the same year, he won the 2006 summer national title in the 400 meter freestyle, won bronze at the United States National Championships in the 200 meter freestyle, and was named to the United States swimming "All-Star Team".
In 2007, Keller left Ann Arbor and returned to USC to finish school and train with the Trojan Swim Club under coach Dave Salo. After returning to USC, Keller completed his bachelor degree. Originally he studied science and public policy in college, and at one point in college he was studying construction management. He finally received a degree in public policy and real estate development, having attended both USC and Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti (a short distance east of Ann Arbor). He later said that ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics, he had considered going to Arizona State University to study criminology. In the 2007 World Rankings, Keller was ranked 18th in the 400 meter freestyle, 49th in the 200 meter freestyle, and 78th in the 100 meter freestyle. At the 2007 World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne, Australia he was on the gold-winning team in the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay. He individually placed tenth in the 400 meter freestyle and 18th in the 200 meter freestyle. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Keller won gold in the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay.
Post-swimming career Keller retired from swimming after the 2008 Summer Olympics. He initially held a series of jobs in sales and finance. From October 2009 through November 2010, Keller worked at the Ann Arbor, Michigan office of Northwestern Mutual Investment Services. From June 2011 through November 2012, he worked for Multi-Bank Securities in Southfield, Michigan west of Warren. In February 2013, he began working at the Memphis, Tennessee, office of Cantor Fitzgerald as a debt trader. He left the firm in February 2014. Commenting on that time in 2018, Keller said, "Swimmer had been my identity for most of my life, and then I quickly transitioned to other roles and never gave myself time to get comfortable with them. I really struggled with things. I didn't enjoy my work, and that unhappiness and lack of identity started creeping into my marriage." In an interview years later for a podcast for the Olympic Channel, Keller commented on his performance as an employee at this time, saying that he had set high expectations for himself, but had been "entitled" in the workplace, as well as a bad employee.
In 2018, Keller moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado south of Denver where he began a career as a real estate broker, being employed as an independent contractor with the real estate firm Hoff & Leigh. In 2021, when SwimSwam contacted them for their January 11 story reporting Keller's involvement in the storming of the Capitol, Hoff & Leigh confirmed that Keller was still an employee of the firm. The SwimSwam reporter who broke the story commented in the article that the firm "seemed unaware of the Capitol video or Keller's possible involvement" in the attack. Later that day, the firm erased all mentions of Keller from its website. On January 12, 2021, Hoff & Leigh released a statement saying that Keller no longer worked for the company, having resigned, and that they did not condone his actions. According to a January 2022 SwimSwam report, Keller returned to work with Hoff & Leigh in May 2021.
Participation in the 2021 United States Capitol attack
Keller was identified as a participant in the 2021 United States Capitol attack, where he was seen inside the Capitol rotunda in a crowd of people clashing with police officers. Keller's presence was reported by several people who saw a video posted by conservative outlet Townhall. Some of the people who recognized Keller in the video said that he had frequently posted pro-Donald Trump content on his social-media accounts. Keller deleted his social-media accounts after being identified. He was recognized, in part, because of his height, the fact that he was wearing a U.S. Olympic team jacket, and that his face was unobstructed in the video.