Lawsuits allege USA Gymnastics, SafeSport failed to prevent sexual abuse by coach
By
Alex Andrejev
Dec. 2, 2025 8:44 pm EST
Two gymnasts have accused USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Center for SafeSport and the owners of a prominent Iowa-based youth gymnastics facility of failing to prevent a former coach from sexually abusing girls by not properly investigating and responding to complaints about his behavior, according to civil lawsuits filed within the last week in Polk County, Iowa.
The plaintiffs, Hailey Gear and Finley Weldon, who are 19 and 18 years old, respectively, were minors when they trained under Sean Gardner at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute, a USA Gymnastics-sanctioned club, in West Des Moines, Iowa, per the court filings obtained by
The Athletic on Tuesday. The separate lawsuits allege that Gear and Weldon were subjected to “repeat and ongoing physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, harassment, and molestation by Gardner” from the fall of 2018 until leaving the gym at different times years later.
The suits also allege that around December 2017, Gardner’s former employer in Mississippi and the parents of a former athlete coached by Gardner informed USA Gymnastics and SafeSport — the Congress-authorized organization that handles abuse allegations within Olympic sports — of his inappropriate behaviors with minor gymnasts. Gardner’s alleged behaviors included requiring athletes to hug him after practices, routinely kissing gymnasts on the forehead, drinking alcohol excessively around the athletes, making sexually suggestive jokes and comments to minor gymnasts and posting inappropriate comments and photos on social media. He was also accused of verbally and emotionally abusing athletes, stalking and intimidating them, and “grooming behaviors,” per the lawsuits.
In August, the FBI arrested Gardner on federal child pornography charges after authorities found videos of minor gymnasts on a hidden camera he allegedly placed in a restroom at the Purvis, Miss., gymnastics studio where he previously coached. The videos, which showed girls changing and using the restroom, were recorded between December 2017 and April 2018, and were found on Gardner’s devices last year during a federal investigation into reports of his alleged sexual misconduct, according to that criminal complaint. The
FBI previously said it believes Gardner “primarily targeted children” at gymnastics facilities where he worked, including another gym in Prairieville, La., from 2004 to 2014.
Gardner remains in jail pending a trial scheduled for next month and has pleaded not guilty in that case, per The Associated Press, which
previously reported that concerns about Gardner were raised to gymnastics authorities as early as 2018.
The latest civil lawsuits allege that USA Gymnastics and SafeSport “failed to properly investigate Gardner’s inappropriate behaviors with minor gymnasts, revoke or suspend Gardner’s coaching credentials, report Gardner to law enforcement, warn other gymnasts and their families, or otherwise take appropriate action.”
The suits also allege that a parent of a minor gymnast at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute reported Gardner and another unnamed coach to SafeSport in September 2020 concerning inappropriate behaviors, but claim that SafeSport failed to properly investigate Gardner or take action to prevent ongoing athlete abuse.
The co-owners of Chow’s — Liang “Chow” Qiao and Liwen Zhuang — are also named as defendants in the civil lawsuits. They are accused of failing to properly investigate or report complaints about Gardner’s conduct or take action despite being notified on multiple occasions by gymnasts and their parents of his inappropriate conduct.
“At no time during the periods of time alleged did CGDI, USAG, SafeSport, Chow, and Zhuang have in place an adequate or reasonable system or procedure to investigate, supervise and monitor coaches or staff, including Gardner, to prevent pre-sexual grooming and sexual harassment, molestation and abuse of children, nor did they implement or follow a system or procedure to oversee or monitor conduct toward minors and others in CGDI’s, Chow’s, and Zhuang’s care,” the lawsuits allege.
A USA Gymnastics spokesperson said in an email Tuesday: “We appreciate the seriousness of this case. As it is ongoing, we cannot offer further comment.”
The U.S. Center for SafeSport said in a statement Tuesday that it is “grateful to those who come forward with their stories” and that it “did not receive reports of abuse (by Gardner) until 2022 and then took swift action to remove him from coaching.” Gardner is currently listed as ineligible on the center’s public Centralized Disciplinary Database.
Qiao and Zhuang did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
An attorney for Gardner did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Weldon
previously told the AP that she wanted to come forward with the allegations because she “knew it would just be a continuous cycle if nobody did.”
“I felt like I needed to speak out to stop it from happening to other little girls, so they didn’t have to go through what I went through,” she said.
Gear’s attorney, Elizabeth Pudenz,
told the AP that Gear wants to publicly share her allegations.
“These cases involving one of the most famous gyms in the United States are a sad and tragic commentary on the state of child protection in elite gymnastics in the United States,” John C. Manly, co-counsel for the plaintiffs who previously represented gymnasts in the Larry Nassar sexual assault case, said in a statement Tuesday. ” … Sadly the culture of money and medals above child safety so clearly illustrated in the Dr. Larry Nassar case nine years ago is alive and well at USA Gymnastics and SafeSport.”
Weldon and Gear are seeking a jury trial, with damages to be specified by the jury, and other lawsuits are expected.
— The Athletic
’s Mark Puleo contributed to this report.
apnews.com
