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USA Gymnastics is facing another lawsuit for allegedly failing to protect female athletes from sexual abuse. The latest lawsuit alleges that USA Gymnastics and the US Center for SafeSport were informed of a coach, Sean Gardner, engaging in “inappropriate and abusive behavior” but failed to properly investigate.
The attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case, John Manly, who previously represented stars including Simone Biles in Larry Nassar’s sexual assault lawsuit against USA Gymnastics, called the organization’s negligence “despicable” in a statement to Pakinomist Digital.
“USA Gymnastics was aware in 2017 that Gardner was a serious and present danger to children. USAG said nothing and allowed a predator to prey on children in Iowa without warning to parents. Their behavior is shocking and despicable,” Manly said.
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Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Academy and former coach Sean Gardner (AP Photo/Scott McFetridge, Polk County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics told Pakinomist Digital in response, “As litigation is ongoing, we cannot comment.”
The lawsuits allege that all of the defendants were negligent in how they responded to reports of Gardner’s misconduct, which included hugging and kissing girls and engaging in other grooming behavior while working out at a Mississippi gym.
The parents of a gymnast filed reports with USA Gymnastics and SafeSport in December 2017 alleging that Gardner demanded that girls give him long hugs after each practice in Mississippi and that he kicked out a girl who refused, the lawsuits allege.
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Gardner allegedly had an improperly closed meeting with a girl he verbally abused, kissed gymnasts on their foreheads, drank excessively in front of them, made sexual jokes with girls and inappropriate comments on social media and stalked a girl he was told to stop contacting, the lawsuits allege.
The FBI arrested Gardner in August on a federal child pornography charge.
The arrest came more than three years after he was suspended from training at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, for alleged sexual misconduct.
Chow’s is the gym where American gymnastics stars Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas trained before becoming gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
In April 2024, another of Chow’s former athletes came forward to the West Des Moines Police Department to report abuse allegations, according to a now-sealed affidavit signed by police detective Jeff Lyon.
A girl reported to SafeSport in March 2022 that Gardner used “inappropriate spotting techniques” where he would put his hands between her legs, the statement said.
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The American flag provides a backdrop during practice time at the USA Gymnastics Championships on June 28, 2017 at the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee, WI. (Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Among the evidence seized by investigators in late May was a cell phone, laptop and desktop computer, along with handwritten notes between Gardner and his former students, according to the sealed court documents.
They found images of girls, approximately 6 to 14 years old, who were naked, using the restroom or changing into leotards, those documents show. These images appear to come from a hidden camera in a toilet.
