A former gymnastics coach is prison-bound for secretly filming young female athletes undressing and using the bathroom at a Mississippi gym where he had been a coach, federal prosecutors said.
Sean Gardner, of West Des Moines, Iowa, was sentenced to 90 years in federal prison on Thursday, October 15, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi said in a news release.
The sentence comes after Gardner, 39, pleaded guilty to three child pornography production charges, according to the Associated Press, which first reported on his arrest in August 2025.
“Today’s sentence sends an undeniable message: those who prey on our children will be found, prosecuted, and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” U.S. Attorney J.E. Baxter Kruger, of the Southern District of Mississippi, said. “Today’s sentence ensures that Gardner will spend the rest of his life paying the price for the devastating harm he caused.”
According to prosecutors, Gardner surreptitiously recorded minor gymnasts in the bathroom of a gym in the city of Purvis while coaching at the facility between 2017 and 2018.
An investigation into the coach was launched after the U.S. Center for SafeSport received reports accusing Gardner of inappropriate behavior involving underage gymnasts, prosecutors said. SafeSport then alerted law enforcement.
Gardner was found to have several images and videos of minors undressing on electronic devices seized from his Iowa home when authorities executed a search warrant, according to prosecutors.
Multiple recordings that appeared to have been captured by a hidden camera showed minors identified as Gardner’s former gymnastic students at the Purvis, Mississippi gym, prosecutors said. Purvis is located about a 100-mile drive southeast from Jackson.
Gardner has also been accused of sexually abusing gymnasts in Iowa, where he coached at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, a renowned facility known to train Olympic champions, according to the Associated Press. Gardner’s former students at the academy have reported to police and detailed in lawsuits that Gardner allegedly preyed on them as their coach.
Gardner has only been criminally prosecuted in connection with the secret recordings of former students in Mississippi, per the outlet.
“Sean Gardner committed horrific and unforgivable acts, manipulating and abusing children while betraying the profound trust their families placed in him,” Robert A. Eikhoff, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Jackson Field Office, said in a statement. “Today marks a decisive moment: justice has been delivered. His victims can take solace in knowing he will never again have the opportunity to harm another child.”
