Sean Gardner faces federal charges in Mississippi as former athletes say oversight failures let him keep coaching young girls.
IOWA CITY, IA — A former gymnastics coach accused of exploiting young girls is due in federal court Monday in Mississippi, while former athletes say USA Gymnastics and other officials missed years of warnings about his conduct.
Sean Gardner, who coached in Mississippi and later at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, faces 12 felony counts tied to allegations that he recorded girls in a gym bathroom. The case has renewed scrutiny of athlete safety systems put in place after the Larry Nassar scandal and has prompted civil lawsuits from gymnasts who say Gardner abused them after earlier concerns were reported.
Gardner initially pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for a change of plea hearing Monday in federal court in Mississippi. Prosecutors allege he placed a hidden camera in a girls’ bathroom at a Purvis, Mississippi, gymnastics facility in 2017 and 2018. Investigators said the camera recorded girls, some as young as 6, while they undressed and changed into leotards. An FBI affidavit said investigators later seized about 50 videos and 400 photos from Gardner’s residence. Gardner is accused in court records of being seen turning off the camera in one recording.
The case also centers on what USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Center for SafeSport and gym leaders were told before Gardner was barred from coaching in 2022 and arrested in 2025. A former Mississippi gym owner, Candi Workman, said she told a USA Gymnastics lawyer in January 2018 about troubling conduct she described as “grooming behavior.” Around that time, the mother of another young gymnast raised concerns that Gardner gave girls long hugs and kissed them on the forehead. Gardner later moved from the Mississippi gym to Chow’s, a well-known Iowa training center that produced Olympic champions Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas.
One former Mississippi gymnast, Liberty Raines, said she was 11 when she trained with Gardner at Jump’In Gymnastics in Purvis. Raines said Gardner was respected because he trained strong athletes, but she later came to view some conduct as abusive. She said girls lined up after practice for hugs, kisses on the forehead and pats on the buttocks. “It was so normalized,” Raines said. Raines said FBI agents later showed her a disturbing image from the girls’ bathroom while investigating Gardner and the alleged hidden camera recordings.
At Chow’s, former gymnast Finley Weldon said Gardner coached her when she was an 11-year-old with Olympic hopes. Weldon said Gardner made inappropriate jokes, asked teenage girls about their sex lives and touched her in ways she said were not needed for spotting during training. “You don’t need to do that to spot somebody,” Weldon said. Weldon, now 18 and an Iowa State gymnast, is among the former athletes who have sued Gardner and others. She said the Nassar survivors had spoken out so abuse would not happen again. “And it happened again,” she said.
The civil lawsuits filed in Iowa accuse USA Gymnastics, SafeSport, Gardner, Chow’s, owner Liang “Chow” Qiao, coach Liwen Zhuan and related business entities of failing to protect young athletes. The lawsuits allege USA Gymnastics and SafeSport were told in December 2017 about inappropriate and abusive behavior while Gardner coached in Mississippi. The suits claim the organizations failed to properly investigate, revoke Gardner’s credentials, report the matter to law enforcement or take other protective steps. USA Gymnastics has said it appreciates the seriousness of the case but cannot comment further because the matter is ongoing.
SafeSport has said it did not receive a report of sexual misconduct against Gardner until 2022. The center said it issued a suspension after receiving that report, which removed Gardner from coaching. Gardner’s SafeSport status later changed to ineligible after his arrest. The center also said coaches at Chow’s knew of later sexual misconduct allegations but failed to report them. SafeSport sanctioned Qiao and several other coaches privately for reporting failures, with penalties that included warnings, required education, probation and, in one case, suspension.
Parents and gymnasts told investigators and reporters that concerns at Chow’s dated back years before Gardner’s suspension. One parent said she attended a 2019 meeting with Qiao and other parents to discuss complaints that Gardner made girls uncomfortable while spotting them and while talking about inappropriate topics. Another parent said a girl told Qiao in 2020 that Gardner had touched her inappropriately during training. Qiao told the girl that contact during spotting could be accidental and meant to prevent injury, according to the parent. The parent said the response left the gymnast feeling dismissed.
Chow’s has said Gardner passed a standard USA Gymnastics background check when he was hired in 2018. The gym promoted him in January 2020 to head coach of a key girls’ team and made him director of the Chow’s Winter Classic, a large annual meet. The gym kept him employed after a 2021 drunken driving arrest in Iowa. Chow’s later said it acted promptly and responsibly after learning in April 2022 that Gardner was restricted from one-on-one or unsupervised contact with athletes during a SafeSport investigation. The gym said it fired him in July 2022 after SafeSport suspended him.
Attorney John Manly, who represented more than 180 plaintiffs in litigation tied to Nassar, represents Weldon in the current case. Manly said earlier reports should have prompted deeper review before Gardner moved from Mississippi to Iowa. “There was plenty of evidence,” Manly said. He said Weldon should never have been coached by Gardner. Megan Bonanni, an attorney who helped secure a settlement for Nassar victims over FBI failures, said the Gardner case shows several institutions did not act with the urgency that child safety required.
The allegations have drawn comparisons to the safety failures that followed the Nassar case. After Nassar, Congress gave SafeSport authority to investigate abuse and misconduct in Olympic sports. USA Gymnastics also promised changes to protect athletes and improve reporting systems. The Gardner case now tests those reforms in a new setting: a coach who moved between USA Gymnastics-affiliated programs after early warnings, later worked at a celebrated gym and remained in the sport until SafeSport intervened in 2022.
Gardner and his attorney did not respond to interview requests cited by news organizations. The owners of Chow’s and their attorneys also did not respond to some requests for comment and have denied the claims brought against the gym in court. The lawsuits seek unspecified damages for injuries and treatment expenses. More former gymnasts have reported abuse allegations, and attorneys have said additional civil claims could follow.
As of Monday, May 11, 2026, Gardner’s criminal case remains before the federal court in Mississippi, where the change of plea hearing is the next scheduled milestone. The civil cases in Iowa remain pending against gymnastics organizations, gym operators and Gardner.
Author note: Last updated May 11, 2026.