Joey Swoll says Jeff Nippard has pressed charges against Mike Van Wyck after viral assault
YouTube: Jaxxon PodcastInternet-famous bodybuilder Joey Swoll has said that fitness influencer Mike Van Wyck turned himself in to authorities after assaulting fellow athlete Jeff Nippard on camera.
On October 21, a video went viral across social media showing Van Wyck pushing Nippard down to the ground by the throat, nearly sending him tumbling into a weight rack.
Although the clip ended shortly thereafter, Nippard later claimed that Mike “jabbed [him] in the throat a second time” before turning to his cameraman and “push[ing] him against a cable machine.”
Van Wyck has since been banned from the gym where the incident took place, Pure Muscle + Fitness in Burlington, Ontario, and fellow fitness influencers have spoken out against his actions toward Nippard online.
However, one creator in the bodybuilding space who didn’t immediately create a video on the subject was Joey Swoll, perhaps one of the most famous athletes in the community. Fans urged him to speak out on the topic — and on October 22, he finally updated viewers with a big development in the story.
According to Swoll, Nippard has officially pressed charges against Van Wyck for assault, and Wyck has allegedly turned himself in to the authorities.
“Mike, the man who assaulted Jeff, has been kicked out of Pure Muscle Gym and turned himself in last night after Jeff pressed charges,” he wrote in a tweet.
“It is NEVER ok to put your hands on someone the way Mike did to Jeff, in the gym or ANYWHERE. This absolutism in the fitness industry needs to STOP. No matter your beliefs, the gym is ONE community, a brother/sisterhood, and we need to respect each other with ZERO tolerance for violence.”
Nippard himself has undergone a CT scan and says that he’s physically alright — but his mental and emotional state following his viral altercation with Van Wyck has left him shaken.
“I really, really appreciate the outpouring of support from the community and from other gym members,” he said in a statement on Instagram. “It’s honestly making this situation a lot easier to deal with for me. So thank you all so much.”
For Swoll’s part, he claims he waited to speak out on the topic after clearing it with Nippard and checking in to see if the influencer was okay, only creating his post after “a long FaceTime call” with him that morning.
Van Wyck has yet to release a statement at the time of writing, but has updated his Instagram stories showing messages of support he’s received from fans and fellow creators over the past 24 hours.