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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 U.S. Center for SafeSport were informed that a coach, Sean Gardner, had engaged in “inappropriate and abusive behavior” but failed to conduct a proper investigation.
The attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case, John Manly, who previously represented stars including Simone Biles in Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse lawsuit against USA Gymnastics, called the organization’s negligence “despicable,” in a statement to PK Press Club Digital.
“USA Gymnastics was aware in 2017 that Gardner posed a serious and present danger to children. USAG said nothing and allowed a predator to prey on Iowa children without warning parents. Their conduct 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 responded to PK Press Club Digital: “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 other grooming behavior while they were coaching at a Mississippi gym.
A gymnast’s parents filed reports with USA Gymnastics and SafeSport in December 2017, alleging that Gardner demanded that girls give him long hugs after every practice in Mississippi and that he kicked out a girl who refused, according to the lawsuits.
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Gardner allegedly had an inappropriate closed-door meeting with a girl he insulted, kissed gymnasts on the forehead, drank alcohol excessively in front of them, made sexual jokes to the girls and inappropriate comments on social media, and stalked a girl he was instructed to stop contact with, 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 coaching at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, for alleged sexual abuse.
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 former Chow athlete came forward to the West Des Moines Police Department to report allegations of abuse, according to a now-sealed affidavit signed by police Detective Jeff Lyon.
A young girl reported to SafeSport in March 2022 that Gardner was using “inappropriate spotting techniques” in which he put his hands between her legs, the affidavit states.
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The American flag serves as a backdrop during practice 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 as well as handwritten notes between Gardner and his former students, according to sealed court documents.
They found images of girls, aged approximately 6 to 14, naked, using the toilet or donning leotards, according to those documents. These images appear to come from a camera hidden in a toilet.
