A former youth gymnastics coach who secretly recorded his young female charges undressing and using the bathroom at a Mississippi gym was sentenced to 90 years in prison Wednesday in a case that reaches to the very pinnacle of the sport.
AP reports U.S. District Judge Kristi Johnson gave the maximum sentence possible to offender Sean Gardner, ordering the miscreant serve 30 years in prison for each of the three federal child pornography production charges to which he pleaded guilty.
The sentence likely amounts to life in prison for Gardner, 39. The outlet further recorded the guilty party was arrested last summer and his conviction renews questions about whether U.S. gymnastics authorities had done enough to protect athletes from sexual abuse at the hands of an influential coach.:
Gardner pleaded guilty to placing a hidden camera in a bathroom at a gymnastics studio in Purvis, Mississippi, between December 2017 and April 2018 to record his students.
Investigators say he created videos showing close-up images of at least 10 minors naked or undressing, which they recovered from his computers years later while investigating claims that he sexually abused gymnasts in Iowa.
Further investigations remain pending related to claims made by several of his former students at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, the AP report continues.
The institute was founded by prominent coach Liang “Chow” Qiao, who is known for producing Olympic champions.
They have alleged to police and in civil lawsuits he used his position to prey on them.
Investigators seized approximately 50 videos and 400 photos from Gardner’s residence as evidence ahead of the trial, according to an FBI affidavit as reported by CBS News.
Gardner is allegedly seen turning off the camera in one of the offending videos.
One of Gardner’s former students told CBS News in May 2026 Gardner was charismatic and she was so young, she didn’t realize her coach’s behavior was abnormal, especially at the end of practice as he watched them disrobing.
“Each of us would line up to get a hug, and he would kiss us on our forehead, and pat us each on the butt,” Liberty Raines, who was 11-years-old when she joined Jump’In Gymnastics in Purvis, said.
She added that ritual ended nearly every practice. “It was so normalized,” Raines said. “I don’t think any of us thought anything of it.”
Gardner coached several youth prospects and served as director of an annual winter meet that drew hundreds of gymnasts to Iowa.
The conviction and claims against Gardner have risen to national level as lawyers for some of the women also alleged the sport’s national oversight bodies, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Center for SafeSport, were told of allegations relating to inappropriate behavior by Gardner in 2017 but failed to take action to remove him from the sport for years.
SafeSport temporarily suspended Gardner in 2022 after a Chow’s gymnast alleged sexual abuse, and Chow’s fired him then.
Several lawsuits remain pending against Gardner, USA Gymnastics and Chow’s Gymnastics while the FBI has confirmed its own investigations proceed at pace.
The Associated Press contributed to this report