Young gymnasts and their parents began warning the coach back in 2017, the same year that an oversight agency was created in the wake of the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal that nearly devastated USA Gymnastics and crippled the nation's entire Olympic movement.
But it wasn't until 2022 that Sean Gardner faced any sanctions from the U.S. Center for Safe Sport, an independent agency created by Congress to investigate abuses in Olympic sports. It was only after an Associated Press investigation this year that details emerged about the coach, whose arrest on child pornography charges in August marked a turning point in a case one person called “Nassar 2.0.”
A new AP investigation found that months before Gardner was arrested on charges of installing cameras in the restroom of a women's gym in Purvis, Missouri, he was willing to accept a lifetime ban from coaching gymnastics as part of a deal in which he admitted to the abuse, according to three people associated with SafeSport and the case.
A tangle of internal politics, including allegations of harassment of SafeSport employees, prevented him from imposing the harshest sanctions, the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from SafeSport, told the AP.
With multiple alleged victims, new witnesses and Gardner's history at three gyms in different states, the case has become one of the most troubling of the agency's eight-year investigations.
“It was like, 'Well, this is Nassar 2.0, so let's find out what we can find out and wrap it up,'” one person said.
The person said there was never a clear reason given for why the center did not approve a permanent ban.
Meanwhile, Gardner has pleaded not guilty to federal child pornography charges and remains in custody pending a March 2 trial.
Differences between temporary and lifetime bans
SafeSport's failure to secure a permanent ban is seen by critics as a fundamental failure that undermines one of its key objectives – ensuring permanent sanctions against the worst offenders.
When asked why SafeSport did not follow through on its mission, center spokeswoman Hilary Niemczyk said she could not comment on those details.
But, she said, SafeSport “took swift action to protect athletes from harm after receiving the first allegations of sexual misconduct. The restrictions that apply 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 defendant agrees to significant sanctions, center staff still have a duty to provide the defendant with a fair trial.”
Without addressing Gardner's case specifically, Niemczyk added that the center is careful not to dismiss cases “with inaccuracies or drawing conclusions that were not properly noted by the defendant, as this could jeopardize the case and require it to be reopened.”
Gardner's July 2022 suspension was entered into the SafeSport disciplinary database, a searchable list of individuals banned by the center that updates the list but does not announce new or notable sanctions. The database requires users to know the name of the person they want to verify.
A permanent injunction, which Gardner has indicated he is willing to sign in early 2025, would change his status in the database and close the investigation, people familiar with the case told the AP.
That would limit its ability to cause more damage in several ways, experts familiar with SafeSport told the AP. These include:
- Eliminating the possibility of a case going to arbitration and the need for re-examination and potential re-traumatization of athletes.
- Eliminating the risk of any ban on Gardner being lifted if he is acquitted in a criminal case.
Importantly, it would send a clear message to parents, people involved in the sport and possible employers, said attorney Michelle Simpson Tugel, who represented the gymnasts in the Nassar case.
“It communicates something that is a final decision,” she said. “It means something. It’s not like this is something that has been adjudicated and maybe this guy is being falsely accused.”
Gardner's admission of the SafeSport Center's potentially illegal activities in early 2025 also could provide law enforcement with additional information in the case that led to his arrest only in August, said attorney Steve Silvey, a longtime critic of the center.
“Did he offend anyone during the months that SafeSport kept this information?” – said Sylvie. “And how does this fit into what the FBI knew” before his arrest?
Despite being suspended from coaching gymnastics for two years, Gardner was able to take a job in May 2024 at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center as a surgical technologist responsible for positioning patients on the operating table and assisting with procedures and post-operative care. A hospital spokesman did not respond to a voicemail and email from the AP seeking comment.
Gardner's lawyer, Omodare Jupiter, also did not respond to an email and phone message from the AP asking about SafeSport's handling of his client's case.
Office politics and employees fear retaliation
People familiar with Gardner's case told the AP that the company was caught in a web of internal SafeSport politics that led to HR complaints alleging harassment and other concerns – and ultimately no lifetime ban.
They described a dysfunctional culture in which employees were afraid to tell their bosses about problems they were facing, including frustration over the center's failure to close the Gardner case.
They said SafeSport conducted an employee survey earlier this year that yielded troubling results. A staff slideshow provided by the AP was quoted as saying: “Significant concerns about retaliation, alleged favoritism and underqualified promotions” in the center's investigative and legal departments.
“If I say something, I can be punished without even being told why,” the employee’s quote read.
Niemczyk did not respond to the AP's question about what SafeSport did in response to the survey, which was conducted shortly after the resignation of CEO Ju'Rize Colon in April, but acknowledged the “short-term cultural issues” that arose after Colon's departure.
Niemczyk said in a statement that the center expects the new CEO to focus on “organizational excellence as the center evolves under new leadership to best fulfill our mission.”
Some allegations remained under the radar for years
Following his arrest, Gardner's sanction on the SafeSport disciplinary database was upgraded from “temporary suspension” to “inadmissible” due to “delinquency of a minor” and “sexual misconduct.”
The conviction will change Gardner's sanction to permanent disqualification from coaching gymnastics. That's the status Gardner agreed to in early 2025, according to case notes from April, one person told the AP.
“People know what Larry Nassar did and how it happened, and you let it happen again?” said John Manley, the gymnasts' lawyer in the Nassar and Gardner cases, when asked to compare the two cases. “The sole purpose of this center is to protect child athletes from predators. And they fail.”
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 claim they didn't do enough to protect them.
The lawsuits say USA Gymnastics and SafeSport were notified in December 2017 by the parents of one girl about Gardner's inappropriate behavior while training at Jump'In Gymnastics in Purvis, Mississippi.
Among the allegations in the lawsuits:
- “Gardner requires junior gymnasts to give him a hug after every practice, including a long, forward-facing, two-armed hug.”
- “Gardner disciplines and intimidates an underage gymnast by inviting her into his office for a 25-minute meeting behind closed doors without parental consent, verbally abusing her, and then hugging and kissing her without consent.”
Both SafeSport and USA Gymnastics declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The criminal complaint that led to Gardner's arrest says the FBI found video files on his computer that Gardner took with a hidden camera in a girls' restroom as young gymnasts undressed and went to the bathroom at a Mississippi gym. The videos date from at least December 2017 to mid-2018.
SafeSport Center said USA Gymnastics notified it in January 2018 that one of its affiliated gyms had disclosed a post involving Gardner. But the center said it did not investigate further because the report was not related to sexual harassment and it did not receive detailed information.
Meanwhile, in 2018, Gardner was able to take a job at the Chow Institute of Gymnastics and Dance in West Des Moines, Iowa, a gym owned by renowned coach Liang “Chow” Qiao that has produced Olympians including gold medalist Shawn Johnson.
It wasn't until 2022, when SafeSport reported more allegations of abuse, that the Iowa gym fired Gardner and the center suspended him. The gym and Qiao, who are named in the lawsuits, did not respond to phone and email messages left by the AP.
It took another three years and an AP investigation to reveal the depth of the allegations against Gardner and the shortcomings of the watchdog agency created to protect athletes in the wake of the Nassar case.
Simpson Tugel said it is not surprising that the case is being compared to Nassar's.
“You look at the graph and how many people knew but failed to protect the children and allowed this person to continue contact,” she said.
“And in some of these cases, there really is a point where it absolutely could have been stopped, but it didn’t.”
