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A former coach at a prestigious Iowa gymnastics academy known for training Olympic athletes was sentenced on Oct. 14 to 90 years in federal prison for secretly recording young gymnasts changing clothes and using the bathroom at a Mississippi gym, according to court records.
Sean Gardner, 39, of West Des Moines, Iowa, received three consecutive 30-year prison terms after pleading guilty earlier this year to three counts of production of child sexual abuse material, court records show. U.S. District Judge Kristi Johnson also ordered a lifetime term of supervised release following his incarceration and to pay about $9,290 in restitution to victims.
He was remanded to U.S. Marshals Service custody, according to court records.
The case drew national attention because of his work in youth gymnastics, including at the prestigious Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, a program known for training elite athletes and Olympic champions.
Federal prosecutors said Gardner abused his position of trust to secretly create recordings of children while working at a gymnastics facility in Purvis, Mississippi. Investigators later discovered images and videos from electronic devices taken from his Iowa home.
Gardner’s arrest by the FBI in 2025, first reported by The Associated Press, raised questions over how allegations involving the gymnastics coach were handled and renewed scrutiny about whether organizations responsible for athlete safety acted quickly enough in response to complaints involving young athletes.
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Investigation began after SafeSport complaints
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, the investigation began after reports were made to the U.S. Center for SafeSport alleging “inappropriate conduct involving minor athletes.” SafeSport referred the matter to law enforcement, leading to a joint local and federal investigation.
Prosecutors said Gardner used his access to children as a gymnastics coach in Purvis to “surreptitiously record minors changing clothes and using the bathroom.” During a search of his Iowa residence, investigators found multiple electronic devices.
A forensic examination uncovered numerous images and videos depicting children, including some younger than 12, according to prosecutors. Investigators said the recordings showed children changing clothes or otherwise partially undressed and were captured using a concealed camera
Authorities determined several recordings were made in a bathroom at the Purvis gym where Gardner worked from 2017 to 2018, prosecutors said. Investigators identified several children shown in the videos as former gymnastics students.
Gardner was arrested by the FBI in August 2025 and pleaded guilty in May to three counts of production of child sexual abuse material, according to prosecutors.
“This is one of the most reprehensible crimes prosecuted by my office,” U.S. Attorney J.E. Baxter Kruger said in a statement announcing the guilty plea. “Coach Sean Gardner exploited his position to abuse and exploit those children he was entrusted to mentor and care for.”
But is it working? U.S. Center for SafeSport was created to protect athletes from abuse.
Allegations extended beyond Mississippi
The Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network, previously reported that the local police began investigating in March 2022 when an Iowa gymnast reported that Gardner had inappropriately touched her during training at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute. The allegations dated back to 2018 and continued until she left the gym in 2020.
The allegations were first reported to SafeSport, which referred the matter to the West Des Moines Police Department. Police said the investigation was placed “on hold” after the gymnast declined to pursue criminal charges, and it remained inactive until a second gymnast came forward in April 2024.
That victim, according to court records, told police she believed Gardner had used his phone to record video of her while he made her perform inappropriate stretches, among other allegations. Authorities subsequently obtained a search warrant for Gardner’s residence, where investigators found hundreds of images of nude girls or girls changing clothes that were later tied to the Purvis gym recordings.
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Gardner’s arrest last year renewed scrutiny of athlete-safety measures in gymnastics, nearly a decade after the sport was shaken by the sexual abuse scandal involving disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.
The case also drew attention because some of the recordings investigators found at Gardner’s home dated as far back as 2017, the same year SafeSport was founded in response to growing revelations of sexual abuse across Olympic and amateur sports.
The congressionally chartered nonprofit aims to keep athletes safe by addressing and preventing sexual, physical, and emotional abuse within sports, according to the watchdog group’s mission statement.
In 2015, USA Gymnastics received multiple allegations of abuse against Nassar from dozens of women and children. The allegations were later shared with the FBI, which in 2021 admitted to mishandling the investigation after the Justice Department Inspector General issued a 119-page report criticizing the bureau’s Indianapolis field office.
In 2018, Nassar, a former Michigan State University employee, pleaded guilty to 10 charges of sexual assault and was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison.
Contributing: William Morris and Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY Network
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-gymnastics coach gets 90 years for secretly filming young athletes
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