IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — More than three years after sexual abuse claims were first reported to authorities by his students, the FBI has arrested a former girls’ coach at an elite U.S. gymnastics academy in Iowa on a child pornography charge.
The abuse investigation into Sean Gardner, formerly of Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, is testing the reforms put in place after the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal rocked USA Gymnastics.
An Associated Press review found that while Gardner was swiftly removed from coaching in 2022, a criminal investigation stalled, the public was kept in the dark about the claims, and Gardner was able to get a job at an Iowa hospital.
Gardner faced multiple claims of sexual abuse by students over a period of years at Chow’s, and had installed a hidden video camera at his former gym in Mississippi to record young girls using the bathroom, according to an FBI affidavit. Gardner hasn’t returned AP messages seeking comment and a public defender assigned to represent him also didn’t return messages.
Accused coach worked at elite Iowa gym
Gardner went to work at Chow’s Gymnastics in 2018, saying he landed his dream job at the academy where U.S. gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas trained before becoming gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
He soon became director of Chow’s Winter Classic, an annual meet that draws more than 1,000 gymnasts to Iowa. He also coached a junior Olympics team during his four-year tenure at Chow’s, which was founded by Liang “Chow” Qiao, a former Chinese gymnast who opened it after moving to the United States.
Several of Gardner’s students earned college gymnastics scholarships.
Investigation began after sexual abuse reports in 2022
In March 2022, a girl reported to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, a watchdog group created after the Nassar scandal to handle abuse investigations, that she had been sexually abused by Gardner, according to an FBI affidavit.
The girl said that Gardner used inappropriate spotting techniques in which he would put his hands between her legs and touch and rub her vagina, during sessions between 2018 and when she left the gym in 2020, the affidavit says.
Months later, another girl told SafeSport that Gardner had similarly sexually abused her during workouts and once dragged her across the carpet so hard that it caused burn marks on her buttocks, according to the affidavit.
Those reports were shared with West Des Moines police, and SafeSport issued a temporary ban on Gardner from coaching for unspecified misconduct. But the criminal investigation quickly stalled after none of the girls stepped forward to pursue criminal charges.
Criminal investigation took years to gain steam
The investigation was dormant until April 2024, when another former student came forward to the West Des Moines police to report she was sexually abused by Gardner at Chow’s.
The AP is not identifying the student in line with its policy of not naming victims of alleged sexual abuse.
The now 18-year-old told police she began taking lessons from Gardner when she was 11 or 12 in 2019, and she initially saw him as a father figure.
Before she moved away in 2021, she told police, he gave her a hug and said she could text and follow him on Instagram and other social media sites, where he went by the nickname “Coach Seanie,” because gym policy barring such contact no longer applied.
She told police Gardner made her do inappropriate stretches that exposed her anus and vagina outside her leotard and that she suspected he used his cellphone to film her in that position.
The teen told police that Gardner fondled her while spotting her, repeatedly touching her vagina. Gartner gave non-consensual hugs, rubbed her back and butt and discussed his sex life, she said.
Police find videos and photos from hidden camera in Mississippi
While serving a search warrant at Gardner’s Iowa apartment in May, investigators seized a cellphone and computer equipment.
They found images of girls, approximately 6 to 14 years in age, who were nude, using the toilet or changing into leotards, documents show. Those images appear to have come from a hidden camera in a restroom.
Additional examination by the FBI uncovered videos that showed at least seven young girls using the gym bathroom at Jump’In Gymnastics in Purvis, Mississippi, where Gardner worked until 2018.
On one of the videos Gardner is shown entering the bathroom and turning off the camera, the FBI says. The owner of the gym, Candi Workman, hasn’t returned AP messages seeking comment.
Gardner made an initial court appearance in Des Moines on Friday on a charge of producing visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which can carry up to 30 years in prison. He was ordered detained pending further proceedings in Mississippi.
During investigation, he got a job at an Iowa hospital
As the investigation proceeded, Gardner said on his Facebook page he had landed a new job in May 2024 as a surgical technologist at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center.
It’s a role that calls for positioning patients on the operating room table, and assisting with procedures and post-surgery care.
Asked about Gardner’s employment, hospital spokesman Todd Mizener told the AP: “The only information I can provide is that he is no longer” at the hospital.
