Years after sex abuse scandal, a young gymnast says “it happened again”

Gymnast says her coach sexually harassed her despite the USA Gymnastics Team promising change: “It happened again” 04:26

Sean Gardner, a gymnastics coach who trains elite teenage girls, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Mississippi to three child sexual abuse charges. He could face 15 to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced in October.

The charges stem from allegations that Gardner placed a hidden camera in the girls’ bathroom at a gymnastics facility in Purvis, Mississippi, where he worked, recording girls ages 6 to 14 undressing and wearing leotards in 2017 and 2018. Investigators seized approximately 50 videos and 400 photographs from Gardner’s home as evidence, according to the FBI affidavit. Gardner allegedly turned off the camera in one of the videos.

In addition to the allegations against Gardner in Mississippi, there are also allegations of misconduct at one of the most respected gyms in competitive gymnastics. The Gardner case may have been one of the first major missteps in protecting young gymnasts. Larry Nassar scandal.

After Nassar – the disgraced doctor pleaded guilty harassing multiple junior gymnasts — USA Gymnastics leadership has promised wholesale changes to safety protocols. A CBS News investigation found that a young competitor’s mother warned USA Gymnastics about Gardner’s behavior she found alarming as early as 2018, but Gardner was still able to move from his gym in Mississippi to Chow’s Gymnastics & Dance, a fancy training center in Iowa that has trained two Olympic gold medalists, Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas. Gardner is accused in separate cases of abusing at least five young gymnasts at Chow’s.

“If they had done any superficial investigation, they would have found this much abuse out there,” said John Manly, an attorney with USA Gymnastics.

“There was a lot of evidence. They just didn’t do it, or they wanted to see it,” said Manly, who represented more than 180 plaintiffs in lawsuits against Larry Nassar.

Manly represents 18-year-old gymnast Finley Weldon, who is suing Chow’s and Gardner. “Finley should never have seen him. He should never have gone to the gym.”

reflecting on talking gymnasts “They were brave and spoke out to make sure it didn’t happen again. And it did happen again,” Weldon told CBS News in the Nassar case.

Gardner and his attorney did not respond to our interview requests; Neither did Chow’s owners or their attorneys, who denied all allegations made against Chow’s in court. A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics said in an emailed statement: “We appreciate the seriousness of this case. Because this is an ongoing legal matter, USA Gymnastics cannot comment further.”

“Very traumatic and scary”

Liberty Raines was 11 years old when she attended Jump’In Gymnastics in Purvis, Mississippi. At the time, Raines had dreams of becoming a gymnast in college. He thought he found the perfect coach to get there: Sean Gardner.

“There were a lot of girls that she trained to be good gymnasts,” Raines said. “[He] He was very respected and revered.”

Raines says Gardner was charismatic and that he was so young that he didn’t realize his coach’s behavior was abnormal, especially at the end of practice.

“We were all lining up to hug, and he was kissing us on the forehead and caressing our butts,” Raines said.

He says the ritual ends almost every practice. “It’s become so normalized,” Raines said. “I don’t think any of us thought anything about it.”

Soon Raines said Gardner would touch him in the middle of practice when he saw her on the bars. Raines said he wasn’t old enough to perceive or talk about it at the time.

Around that time, the mother of another young gymnast from Mississippi notified USA Gymnastics in an email of her concerns that Gardner was giving young gymnasts “very long, forward-facing, two-armed hugs and long kisses on the forehead.”

Separately, Gardner’s boss in Mississippi told USA Gymnastics in a later email that he had mentioned Gardner’s “maintenance behavior” in January 2018.

In late 2018, though, Gardner moved from one USA Gymnastics gym to another, moving from her gym in Mississippi to Chow’s Gymnastics & Dance in West Des Moines, Iowa.

But then the FBI approached Raines. He said that during their investigation into Gardner and her allegations of using a hidden camera, agents visited her and showed her disturbing footage of her changing in the girls’ bathroom of her gym in Mississippi.

“They had a photo of me. It was very traumatic and scary for me,” Raines said.

“Something really wasn’t right”

At Chow’s, Gardner got his turn coaching Olympic hopefuls. He began coaching Finley Weldon, a talented 11-year-old gymnast with Olympic dreams.

Weldon said Gardner was acting “strangely” throughout, making inappropriate jokes and asking young girls questions about their sex lives.

“I knew something was really not right with him,” Weldon said.

Weldon said Gardner touched her inappropriately while she was stretching and spotting him during gymnastics practice.

“You don’t have to do that to notice someone,” he said.

Manly said the initial concerns expressed in Mississippi should have led USA Gymnastics to launch a rigorous investigation. That did not happen, she said, and allowed Gardner to move from Mississippi to Iowa, where Weldon and at least four other gymnasts sued Gardner for allegedly abusing them.

In the wake of the Nassar scandal, Congress passed the Safe Sport Authorization Act in February 2018. The law gave the U.S. Center for Safe Sport the authority and authority to investigate allegations of abuse and sexual abuse. A representative from SafeSport said the organization did not receive any reports of sexual harassment against Gardner until 2022. When SafeSport learned of the allegations against Gardner, the agent said it filed a restraining order which led to Gardner being suspended from coaching.

The FBI arrested Gardner in August 2025 after police searched his apartment in Iowa. Seized electronic devices revealed hidden camera footage allegedly taken in a Mississippi gym bathroom, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Iowa.

Weldon left Chow’s after expressing concerns about Gardner, but continued to practice. As a freshman this year, she competed on the Iowa State University gymnastics team.

“I think my passion and love for gymnastics shined much brighter than what she did,” Weldon said.

In March, Weldon entered the NCAA transfer portal after Iowa State announced it would discontinue its gymnastics program. She hopes to join a new varsity gymnastics team in the coming months.