DENVER (AP) — There was an eight-year gap between the time young gymnasts and their parents started sounding warnings about a coach in 2017 and when he was arrested earlier this year on federal child pornography charges.
It took the U.S. Center for SafeSport — the agency formed by Congress to combat this type of abuse — until 2022 to sanction that coach, Sean Gardner.
Now, an Associated Press investigation has found that months before Gardner’s arrest in August on allegations of installing cameras in a girls gym bathroom in Purvis, Mississippi, he was willing to accept a lifetime ban from coaching gymnastics as part of a deal where he would admit to the abuse, according to three people involved with SafeSport and its handling of the case.
The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by SafeSport.
There was never a clear reason given for why the center did not finalize a permanent ban in a case one person called “Nassar 2.0” — a reference to the abuse scandal involving Larry Nassar that nearly destroyed USA Gymnastics and brought about the need for the SafeSport Center.
Meanwhile, Gardner has pleaded not guilty to federal child pornography charges and remains jailed pending trial, set for March 2.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the latest AP investigation.
Experts see significant difference between temporary and lifetime bans
Critics see SafeSport’s inability to lock down a permanent ban as a failure that undermines one of its missions — securing permanent sanctions against the most dangerous abusers.
Asked why SafeSport didn’t follow through, center spokesperson Hilary Nemchik said in a statement she could not comment about those details.
But, she said, SafeSport “took swift action to protect athletes from harm upon receiving the first allegations of sexual misconduct. The restrictions in place during a temporary suspension and a permanent ban are the same.”
Regarding SafeSport’s handling of cases in general, the statement said, “even if a respondent agrees to a significant sanction, center staff are still required to ensure the respondent receives a fair process.”
The center placed Gardner on a temporary suspension in July 2022 and posted his sanction on its disciplinary database.
But the permanent ban Gardner indicated he was ready to sign in early 2025 would have changed his status on the database and closed the investigation, the people familiar with the case told the AP.
Among the differences a permanent ban would have made, they said, were eliminating the possibility of the case going to arbitration and any need to reinterview and potentially retraumatize athletes. It also would have removed the risk of any ban on Gardner being lifted if he were acquitted in his criminal case.
Just as importantly, it would send a clear message to parents, people in sports and possible employers, said attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegel, who represented gymnasts in the Nassar case.
“It communicates something that’s a final determination,” she said. “That means something. It’s not like it’s something that’s being adjudicated and maybe this guy is falsely accused.”
Despite being under temporary suspension from coaching gymnastics for two years, Gardner was able to land a job in May 2024 at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center as a surgical technologist, responsible for positioning patients on the operating room table and assisting with procedures and post-surgery care. A hospital spokesperson did not respond to a voicemail and email from the AP seeking comment.
Gardner’s attorney, Omodare Jupiter, also did not respond to an email and phone message from the AP asking questions about SafeSport’s handling of his client’s case.
Some allegations went under the radar for years
Since his arrest, Gardner’s sanction on SafeSport’s disciplinary database has been upgraded from “temporary suspension” to “ineligible” due to “criminal disposition involving a minor” and “sexual misconduct.”
A conviction would change Gardner’s sanction to permanently ineligible to coach gymnastics. That’s a move the center could have made in early 2025, those familiar with the case said.
Meanwhile, SafeSport, USA Gymnastics and coaches at the Iowa gym where Gardner worked are named as defendants in civil lawsuits filed by two gymnasts who say they didn’t do enough to protect them.
The lawsuits say that in December 2017, USA Gymnastics and SafeSport were notified by one girl’s parents of Gardner’s inappropriate behavior while coaching at Jump’In Gymnastics in Purvis, Mississippi.
Both SafeSport and USA Gymnastics declined to comment on the litigation.
The SafeSport center has said USA Gymnastics notified it in January 2018 that one of its affiliated gyms had resolved a report involving Gardner. But, the center said, it didn’t investigate further because the report was not related to sexual misconduct and it did not receive detailed information.
Meanwhile, Gardner was able to land a job at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, in 2018 — a gym owned by renowned coach Liang “Chow” Qiao that produced Olympians, including gold medalist Shawn Johnson.
Not until 2022, when new allegations of abuse were reported to SafeSport, did the Iowa gym fire Gardner and the center place him on temporary suspension. The gym and Qiao, which are both named in the lawsuits, did not return phone and email messages left by the AP.
It took another three years and an investigation by the AP to expose the depths of the allegations against Gardner — and the shortcomings of the watchdog agency created to protect athletes in the wake of the Nassar case.
Simpson Tuegel said it’s no surprise this case is being compared to Nassar’s.
“You look at the timeline and how many people knew and failed to protect children and allowed this person to keep having contact,” she said.
“And there really is a point that you see, in some of these cases, where it absolutely could have been stopped and it wasn’t.”
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Associated Press reporter Ryan J. Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, contributed to this report.
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