US Gymnastics: Youth Coach Sentenced
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
A former leading youth gymnastics coach has been sentenced, on 14 October 2026, to 90 years in prison, for secretly recording on camera his young female students undressing and using the bathroom at a Mississippi gym.
US District Judge, Kristi Johnson, imposed on Sean Gardner, who is 39 years old, the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for each of the three federal child pornography production charges, to which he pleaded guilty.
The case has raised questions whether the US gymnastics authorities had done enough to protect their athletes from sexual abuse at the hands of such an influential coach.
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