USA Gymnastics, SafeSport Face More Sexual Assault Lawsuits From Athletes

Despite inappropriate sexual conduct warnings as early as 2017, Sean Gardner was allowed to continue coaching until 2022, the lawsuits claim.

USA Gymnastics is once again facing allegations that it failed to stop a known sexual predator from accessing young athletes, after two young women reported being molested by Coach Sean Gardner, who is now facing child pornography charges.

Gymnasts Finley Weldon and University of Iowa student Hailey Gear have filed a lawsuit in Polk County Court in Iowa, claiming that Gardner also mentally, physically and sexually abused the two athletes in 2018, when they were just 11- and 12-years old. Gardner was a coach at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines at the time.

The lawsuit alleges that Chow’s, USA Gymnastics, and the U.S. Center for SafeSport all failed to properly vet Gardner, despite a documented history of complaints. A December 1 Associated Press report highlighted these allegations as part of a series that exposed Gardner’s alleged misconduct earlier this summer. Gardner was arrested by the FBI in August.

The claims come just four years after USA Gymnastics agreed to a $380 million settlement with 500 survivors who were sexually abused by former Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar. That settlement was part of a broader deal allowing the organization to emerge from bankruptcy, which had been triggered by a wave of child sexual abuse lawsuits filed by athletes who endured Nassar’s misconduct for years. 

The U.S. Center for SafeSport was later established to help identify sexual predators earlier and prevent them from gaining access to potential victims.

Many of the survivors, who refer to themselves as the Sister Survivors, say they reported Nassar’s behavior to USA Gymnastics officials, Michigan State University staff, and others, but were discouraged from pursuing their complaints.

According to the two young women, USA Gymnastics and SafeSport again failed to do their job, arguing in their lawsuits that the organizations had been warned about Gardner multiple times before they were abused.

The two plaintiffs indicate USA Gymnastics and SafeSport were informed of questionable behavior by Gardner in 2017 in Mississippi, where he was known to require girls to give him overly long hugs after training sessions. One girl who refused was kicked out, the lawsuits claim. Gardner was also known to drink excessive amounts of alcohol, make sexually inappropriate jokes, and be instructed to stop stalking one of the trainees, according to the complaints.

The lawsuits point out that Gardner’s own supervisor reported him to USA Gymnastics in January 2018 for suspected grooming behavior, yet he was still allowed to continue coaching. Later that year, he began working with Weldon and Gear, when the alleged abuse occurred. SafeSport temporarily suspended Gardner in 2022 after receiving a sexual misconduct report and later prohibited him from coaching minors, but the young women say those actions came far too late.

His arrest this August was the result of allegations and evidence that Gardner placed a hidden camera in a bathroom at a gymnastics studio in Mississippi from December 2017 until April 2018. Investigators found close-up images of naked and partially dressed minors on his computer in 2024 during an investigation into sexual abuse claims. Gardner has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial in January.

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