Gymnastics Coach Who Filmed Minors In Bathroom Gets Maximum 90 Years

A federal judge in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, sentenced former youth gymnastics coach Sean Gardner, 39, to the maximum 90 years in prison on Oct. 14. U.S. District Judge Kristi Johnson gave him 30 years on each of three federal counts of producing child sexual abuse material, a term that amounts to life.

Gardner pleaded guilty to hiding a camera in a bathroom at a gym in Purvis, Mississippi, between December 2017 and April 2018. The Justice Department says he secretly videotaped gymnasts in the restroom of the gym where he coached. He had been indicted on 10 counts in August 2025, and a superseding indictment in April added two more. He pleaded to counts 1, 3 and 7, and KCRG reported the plea in May.

Investigators say the recordings show at least 10 minors undressing or naked, and that they turned up only years later, when police were looking into abuse allegations against him in Iowa. An FBI affidavit cited by CBS News says agents seized about 50 videos and 400 photos from his residence. West Des Moines police searched his apartment in May 2025, and the FBI arrested him that August.

Gardner has not been charged over the Iowa allegations. Police told CBS they will decide how to proceed once the federal case ends. Court records cited by NBC News say at least three young gymnasts at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute, the West Des Moines gym where he worked from 2018 to 2022, were sexually abused. Those are allegations, and nothing in the Iowa records has been tested in court.

Sean Gardner was just sentenced to 90 years in prison for secretly recording young gymnasts undressing in a locker room at a gym in Mississippi. Gardner also had coached at Chow’s Gym, owned by Liang “Chow” Qiao (who coached Shawn Johnson to Olympic gold). Reportedly Chow knew of abuse allegations and failed to report them for years. Former USA Gymnastics leader Li Li Leung was just awarded the 2026 Torch Award from the USOPC for her leadership and impact on the Olympic movements. Why is gymnastics STILL such a grotesque shit show of abuse??? And seriously, would you let this guy anywhere near your daughter?

— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) October 15, 2026

Two lawsuits filed Dec. 1 in Polk County, Iowa, say USA Gymnastics and SafeSport were told about Gardner’s behavior in December 2017. The plaintiffs are two former gymnasts. According to AP’s account of the filings, the suits allege the organizations were alerted to “inappropriate and abusive behaviors” at the Mississippi gym, did not investigate, did not revoke his credentials and did not go to police. They say that inaction let him land the Iowa job. The suits also name Chow’s and its founder, Liang “Chow” Qiao, and they remain pending.

SafeSport disputes the timeline. It told AP it first heard of sexual misconduct allegations against Gardner in 2022 and acted swiftly from there. It says USA Gymnastics told it in January 2018 only that an affiliated gym had resolved a report involving him, and it did not dig further because the report was not about sexual misconduct and lacked detail. CBS reports that Gardner’s boss in Mississippi said in an email that she told USA Gymnastics about his “grooming behavior” in January 2018. AP reported that USA Gymnastics and SafeSport declined to comment on the litigation, and that Gardner’s lawyer did not respond.

What happened after 2022 is harder to square with its account. It suspended Gardner provisionally in July 2022, four months after a girl first reported him to the center, and Chow’s fired him. Yet AP reported he took a hospital job in May 2024 while still under suspension. Three people familiar with the case told AP that Gardner was willing in early 2025 to accept a lifetime coaching ban, and that SafeSport never finalized it. SafeSport said it took swift action and that temporary and permanent bans carry the same restrictions.

SafeSport’s own investigation found that Chow and other coaches at the Iowa gym knew of the allegations and did not report them as policy requires, per OutKick. Police records say a detective asked SafeSport to encourage families to file criminal complaints, but only one parent contacted police in 2022, and that investigation stalled. Chow’s and Qiao did not respond to AP when Gardner was arrested.

Gardner’s career ran through three states. The FBI says he coached at Athletes in Motion in Prairieville, Louisiana, from 2004 to 2014, at Jump’In Gymnastics in Purvis from 2014 to 2018, and at Chow’s from 2018 to 2022. Agents opened a website for possible victims after the arrest, saying he mainly targeted children at gyms in all three states.

His plea did not waive his right to appeal. The civil suits against him, USA Gymnastics, SafeSport and the Iowa gym are still pending. The case revives questions about SafeSport that surfaced after the Larry Nassar scandal.