Olympic hockey stock watch: Risers and fallers from Women's World Championship
The 2025 Women's World Championship is now complete, with Team USA dethroning Canada in dramatic fashion to win gold on Sunday night.
The trophy ceremony comes just ten months away from the 2026 Olympics, where the constant tug of war for women's hockey supremacy will continue in Milano-Cortina.
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Will Team USA use its success in Czechia to win Olympic gold for the first time since 2018? Or will Canada use its silver-medal finish as inspiration to win a second straight Olympic title?
There's still a long way to go to answer those questions. But after two weeks in České Budějovice, we can at least take a good look at how the 2026 Olympic rosters might be taking shape.
So, let's take a look at how the results at women's worlds might affect the Canada and U.S. rosters.
Team Canada
Stock up
Jennifer Gardiner
Gardiner had an excellent worlds debut, scoring 10 points in seven games, which ranked second tournament-wide behind only Marie-Philip Poulin. Nobody had more than Gardiner's six goals.
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She started the tournament on a line with Poulin and Laura Stacey – her frequent linemates in the PWHL – and scored three goals and five points in four games. When head coach Troy Ryan switched things up, Gardiner wound up on the fourth line with Emma Maltais and Kristin O'Neill and added two more goals to her stat sheet in a 9-1 trouncing of Japan in the quarterfinals.
'That gave me a lot of confidence in who she is as a player,' said Ryan. 'She (doesn't) have to play with Pou. She can go somewhere else and still have an impact.'
In the gold medal game, back on Poulin's line, Gardiner scored a critical game-tying goal in the second period. She looks like a staple for Canada, either as a complementary piece with its captain or driving her own line.
Daryl Watts
Watts also did well in her worlds debut, scoring four goals in seven games and adding a lot of skill to the top six, where she stuck for the entire tournament – either on the top line with Poulin or as a second-line duo with Sarah Fillier. Watts looked particularly dangerous on the power play throughout the tournament, where she scored two of her goals.
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In Sunday's gold medal game, she played almost 20 minutes and fired six shots on goal, which tied Poulin for the most in the game. After years of waiting to see Watts on Team Canada, it's now hard to imagine her not on this roster for the foreseeable future.
The mushy middle
Sophie Jaques
There was a time where it felt like Jaques would never get a look on the national team, but she's been so good in the PWHL that she forced their hand. She mostly played on the third pair or as the seventh defender, but Jaques looked the part on Canada's blue line. Until the gold medal game, that is.
She had one shift in particular in the first period where Kendall Coyne Schofield picked the puck off her with ease, then when Jaques got it back, her attempt to clear the zone went right onto a U.S. stick.
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It's unfair to judge a player based on one game, but it was the most important game of the tournament. And ultimately, Jaques played around three minutes on Sunday, and barely at all after the first period.
When Jaques plays with confidence in the PWHL, she's one of Canada's best. You'd hope management would give her a few more looks next year in camp and in the Rivalry Series to find that part of her game with the national team.
Natalie Spooner
Spooner started the tournament on the fourth line, got a look on the second line, then wound up a healthy scratch in the semifinals and championship game.
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'We told (the players) right from Day 1, we're just going to find ways to put the best roster on the ice that we can, and no one's excluded from that,' said Ryan.
She finds herself in the middle – not with her stock down – because while Spooner is healthy, she's not 100 percent back up to game speed yet. She missed nine months with an ACL injury after putting together an MVP season in the PWHL last year.
A full return to form is going to take some time. She has five points in 11 games back for the Toronto Sceptres, and only scored one goal and two points in the four games she played at worlds. It'll be a big offseason for Spooner to find her game again, but she's a pretty safe bet to get there in time for Milan.
'She's doing her best and everything in her power to get her game back to where it needs to be,' Ryan said. 'And I have no doubt she'll get there.'
Stock down
Julia Gosling
She didn't initially make Canada's 25-player roster, but was added in March after the IIHF deemed Hannah Miller ineligible due to her previous contract to play overseas and for the Chinese national team.
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Gosling was the 14th forward for most of the tournament and only played in two of four group stage games. But as the tournament went on, Gosling played more, even taking Spooner's place at the bottom of the lineup, and got some looks in the bumper spot on the power play.
She remains in this category because she wasn't originally in Canada's plans, and nobody played fewer minutes per game (6:06) than Gosling.
It would probably take a big developmental step in the 2025-26 season for Gosling to beat out someone like Danielle Serdachny, Emma Maltais, Kristin O'Neil or even Spooner for an Olympic roster spot. Or Canada deciding to move on from some veteran players after the loss to the U.S. in favor of youth versus experience.
Micah Zandee-Hart
Zandee-Hart made her way back onto the national team after dealing with an injury in the 2023-24 season, beating out Ashton Bell and Jaime Bourbonnais for one of the eight D slots in Czechia. But throughout the tournament, she was the seventh defender, or a scratch with Chloe Primerano and Jaques getting more games and more minutes.
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Perhaps Ryan and general manager Gina Kingsbury were trying to give the younger defenders more looks, considering Zandee-Hart has been in the program longer. But it's also fair to wonder if the kids are pushing for those final two D spots for Milan.
Stock (technically) down, but who would replace them?
Jocelyne Larocque
While Larocque's stock might be down in the eyes of fans who watched in shock as she sent a puck right onto Taylor Heise's stick in overtime on Sunday night, it would be hard to replace Larocque.
She just played in her 200th game for Team Canada, becoming the first defender to ever hit that milestone. She's incredibly valuable to the locker room, especially now with some young defenders on the team. Unless someone pushes Larocque out, it's going to take more than a bad change and overtime mistake – as egregious as it was – to truly shake up the blue line.
Brianne Jenner
For the first time since her debut in 2012, Jenner failed to score a single goal at women's worlds. Her two points were the lowest since that tournament more than a decade ago, too. I've long assumed that Jenner would have a place on the national team as long as she wants one. And without a young player like Gosling or even a college star like Caitlin Kraemer pushing her for a spot, that will probably be true.
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But in doing this exercise, we probably need to acknowledge that Jenner is struggling offensively even in the PWHL, with just five goals in 25 games this season.
Olympic projection
Team USA
Stock up
Kelly Pannek
Typically, Pannek is asked to play a more defensive-minded checking role for Team USA. But this year, coach John Wroblewski decided to put Pannek on a line that could drive more offense; she mostly slotted in with Abbey Murphy and Kendall Coyne Schofield.
By tournament's end, no American had more goals than Pannek, and only Hilary Knight had more points.
It feels weird to say Pannek's stock is up when she's been a lineup staple for almost a decade, but at the very least, she showed she could be a critical piece to a secondary scoring trio.
Lacey Eden
Eden's place on the team felt fairly safe before the tournament began, but like Pannek, she showed her range and ability to scale the lineup for the U.S. As a bottom-six forward, Eden can win puck battles and will be the first player into the dirty areas of the ice. She can also score with a quick release in the slot, like she did in the quarterfinals when playing on the second line with Heise.
Gwyneth Philips (and Ava McNaughton)
Philips started her first women's worlds game on April 11 against Czechia, posting a 10-save shutout. She got one more start (another clean sheet) and was thrown into the championship game cold after Aerin Frankel was forced to leave the game five minutes into the third period. She made 17 saves on 18 shots, including 10 in three-on-three overtime.
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'We don't get where we are without Gwyn,' said Knight after the game.
So there's really no question now that Philips is the No. 2 goalie for Team USA. Meanwhile, McNaughton looked fine enough in her 28 minutes (three saves on three shots) and given her age (20) and potential 'Goalie of the Future' status, it probably makes sense to take her to Milan over Nicole Hensley.
Hannah Bilka
OK, hear me out on this one. Bilka didn't play in the tournament, but I'd say her stock is up because you could feel her absence on this U.S. roster, particularly on the second line next to Heise.
Wroblewski used four different line combinations with Heise, none of which particularly stood out. While Heise came up big-time in the championship game with a goal and the golden assist, she only scored one even-strength goal in six games. Perhaps Bilka can help with that.
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Bilka hasn't done a lot of scoring on Team USA herself, but she's highly skilled and creates space for her linemates with her vision and playmaking ability. It will be interesting to see if she makes her way back onto the roster ahead of next season. Because even if fully healthy – Bilka was injured during the February Rivalry Series – it's my understanding Bilka probably would have been left home.
Laila Edwards
Edwards' swap to defense was one of the more interesting storylines to follow at this year's tournament. At times, she looked pretty uncomfortable at the position, but she scored a critical power-play goal in the semifinals to help the U.S. climb out of an early hole against Czechia.
In the gold medal game, Edwards played almost 30 minutes – second on the team in ice time – and tallied an assist on Heise's power-play goal in the third to make it 3-2.
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There's probably better natural defenders who could make the team for Milan (Rory Guilday, for example). But it's hard to imagine the U.S. moving Edwards to the blue line, seeing her progress and deciding to cut her from the Olympic team.
Joy Dunne
Dunne brings legitimate size (5-foot-11) to the U.S. roster. She's scored 53 goals in just two years in college, winning national rookie of the year last season and being a top-10 finalist for player of the year this season.
But that offense just hasn't translated from college to the national team yet. In 13 games at two different iterations of women's worlds, Dunne has one goal and three points. This year, she only had one assist, despite largely playing on the second line with Heise and averaging over 14 minutes per game.
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It seems like Wroblewski likes Dunne's size and mobility, but has she done enough scoring at this level to go to Milan?
Kirsten Simms
Based on her ice time and the fact that she was scratched for three games of the tournament, including the semifinal and the championship game, Simms should be in the stock down category.
But frankly, it feels unwise to leave her at home for Milan. Because for all the focus on building a lineup that was harder to play against, it was still the young stars for Team USA who got it done when it mattered most against Canada. Simms is very much in that category.
Savannah Harmon
Harmon entered the tournament as Team USA's seventh defender, largely in favor of Edwards getting consistent reps on the top pair with Megan Keller. As the tournament went on, though, Harmon seemed to struggle. In the semifinal against Czechia, she turned the puck over deep in the U.S. zone with goalie Aerin Frankel out of her crease, which allowed Tereza Plosová to open the scoring.
Harmon didn't step on the ice again for the rest of the tournament.
Grace Zumwinkle
If this year's worlds was a 'prove it' tournament for Zumwinkle to make her way back onto the 23-player roster, I'm not sure she did enough. She moved around the bottom of the lineup and even got some second-line looks beside Heise, but couldn't quite stick higher up the lineup. Overall, Zumwinkle played under nine minutes per game and only tallied one point, an assist on a Hayley Scamurra goal in a 7-1 win against Finland.
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Zumwinkle is a really talented player – she won the PWHL's rookie of the year award last season – but she hasn't quite been able to consistently put it together on the national team, certainly not since Wroblewski first cut her in 2023.
Jesse Compher
Like Zumwinkle, it's not that Compher played poorly per se. It's just that she probably didn't do enough to make a smaller Olympic roster. Compher was one of two U.S. forwards to not tally a point (along with fourth-line center Britta Curl) and her three shots on goal were the fewest among lineup regulars.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Years after abuse reports, ex-coach at renowned US gymnastics academy is arrested by FBI
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. gymnastics world was only just recovering from a devastating sexual abuse scandal when a promising young coach moved from Mississippi to Iowa to take a job in 2018 at an elite academy known for training Olympic champions. Liang 'Chow' Qiao, the owner of Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, thought highly enough of his new hire, Sean Gardner, to put him in charge of the club's premier junior event and to coach some of its most promising girls. But four years later, Gardner was gone from Chow's with little notice. USA Gymnastics, the organization rocked by the Larry Nassar sex-abuse crisis that led to the creation of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, had been informed by the watchdog group that Gardner was suspended from all contact with gymnasts. The reason for Gardner's removal wasn't disclosed. But court records obtained exclusively by The Associated Press show the coach was accused of sexually abusing at least three young gymnasts at Chow's and secretly recording others undressing in a gym bathroom at his prior job in Mississippi. Last week, more than three years after being suspended from coaching, the FBI arrested Gardner, 38, on a federal child pornography charge. But his disciplinary case has still not been resolved by SafeSport, which handles sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports. In cases like Gardner's, the public can be in the dark for years while SafeSport investigates and sanctions coaches. SafeSport requires that allegations be reported to police to ensure abusers don't run unchecked outside of sports, but critics say the system is a slow, murky process. 'From an outward operational view, it seems that if SafeSport is involved in any way, the situation turns glow-in-the-dark toxic,' said attorney Steve Silvey, a longtime SafeSport critic who has represented people in cases involving the center. While acknowledging there can be delays as its investigations unfold, SafeSport defended its temporary suspensions in a statement as 'a unique and valuable intervention' when there are concerns of a risk to others. Nevertheless, in 2024, Gardner was able to land a job helping care for surgical patients at an Iowa hospital — two years after the abuse allegations against him were reported to SafeSport and the police. And it was not until late May that West Des Moines police executed a search warrant at his home, eventually leading to the recovery of a trove of photos and videos on his computer and cellphone of nude young girls, court records show. Authorities in Iowa sealed the court documents after the AP asked about the investigation earlier this month, before details of the federal charge were made public Friday. Gardner, Qiao and Gardner's former employer in Mississippi did not respond to AP requests for comment. 'The job that I've always wanted' Chow's Gymnastics is best known as the academy where U.S. gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas trained before becoming gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Qiao opened the gym in 1998 after starring on the Chinese national team and moving to the United States to coach at the University of Iowa. The gym became a draw for top youth gymnasts, with some families moving to Iowa to train there. Gardner moved to Iowa in September 2018, jumping at the opportunity to coach under Qiao. 'This is the job that I've always wanted. Chow is really someone I have looked up to since I've been coaching,' Gardner told the ABC affiliate WOI-TV in 2019. 'And you can tell when you step foot in the gym, just even from coaching the girls, the culture that he's built. It's amazing. It's beautiful.' A year later, Gardner was promoted to director of Chow's Winter Classic, an annual meet that draws more than 1,000 gymnasts to Iowa. He also coached a junior Olympics team during his four-year tenure at Chow's. Several of his students earned college gymnastics scholarships, but Gardner said he had bigger goals. 'You want to leave a thumbprint on their life, so when they go off hopefully to school, to bigger and better things, that they remember Chow's as family,' he said in a 2020 interview with WOI-TV. Coach accused of sexual misconduct in Iowa and Mississippi Gardner is accused of abusing his position at Chow's and his former job at Jump'In Gymnastics in Mississippi to prey on girls under his tutelage, according to a nine-page FBI affidavit released Friday that summarizes the allegations against him. A girl reported to SafeSport in March 2022 that Gardner used 'inappropriate spotting techniques' in which he would put his hands between her legs and touch her vagina, the affidavit said. It said she alleged Gardner would ask girls if they were sexually active and call them 'idiots, sluts, and whores.' She said this behavior began after his hiring in 2018 and continued until she left the gym in 2020 and provided the names of six other potential victims. SafeSport suspended Gardner in July 2022 – four months after the girl's report – a provisional step it can take in severe cases with 'sufficient evidentiary support' as investigations proceed. A month after that, the center received a report from another girl alleging additional 'sexual contact and physical abuse,' including that Gardner similarly fondled her during workouts, the FBI affidavit said. The girl said that he once dragged her across the carpet so hard that it burned her buttocks, the affidavit said. SafeSport shared the reports with West Des Moines police, in line with its policy requiring adults who interact with youth athletes to disclose potential criminal cases to law enforcement. While SafeSport's suspension took Gardner out of gymnastics, the criminal investigation quickly hit a roadblock. Police records show a detective told SafeSport to urge the alleged victims to file criminal complaints, but only one of their mothers contacted police in 2022. That woman said her daughter did not want to pursue criminal charges, and police suspended the investigation. Victims of abuse are often reluctant to cooperate with police, said Ken Lang, a retired detective and associate professor of criminal justice at Milligan University. 'In this case you have the prestige of this facility,' he said. 'Do they want to associate their name with that, in that way, when their aspirations were to succeed in gymnastics?' Police suspended the investigation, even as Gardner was on probation for his second-offense of driving while intoxicated. A dormant case reopened, and a year later, an arrest The case stayed dormant until April 2024 when another former Chow's student came forward to the West Des Moines Police Department to report abuse allegations, according to a now-sealed affidavit signed by police detective Jeff Lyon. The AP is not identifying the student in line with its policy of not naming victims of alleged sexual abuse. The now 18-year-old told police she began taking lessons from Gardner when she was 11 or 12 in 2019, initially seeing him as a 'father figure' who tried to help her get through her parents' divorce. He told her she could tell him 'anything,' the affidavit said. When she moved in 2021, she told police, he gave her a hug and said she could text and follow him on Instagram and other social media sites, where he went by the nickname 'Coach Seanie,' because gym policy barring such contact no longer applied. According to a summary of her statement provided in Lyon's affidavit, she said Gardner fondled her during exercises, repeatedly touching her vagina; rubbed her back and butt and discussed his sex life; and made her do inappropriate stretches that exposed her privates. She told police she suspected he used his cellphone to film her in that position. Reached by the AP, the teen's mother declined comment. The mother told police she was interested in a monetary settlement with Chow's because the gym 'had been made aware of the complaints and they did nothing to stop them,' according to Lyon's affidavit. The gym didn't return AP messages seeking comment. It took 16 months after the teen's 2024 report for the FBI to arrest Gardner, who made an initial court appearance in Des Moines on Friday on a charge of producing visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which can carry up to 30 years in prison. A public defender assigned to represent him didn't return AP messages seeking comment. It's unclear why the case took so long to investigate and also when the FBI, which had to pay $138 million to Nassar's victims for botching that investigation, got involved in the case. Among evidence seized by investigators in late May were a cellphone, laptop and a desktop computer along with handwritten notes between Gardner and his former pupils, according to the sealed court documents. They found images of girls, approximately 6 to 14 years in age, who were nude, using the toilet or changing into leotards, those documents show. Those images appear to have come from a hidden camera in a restroom. They also uncovered 50 video files and 400 photos, including some that appeared to be child pornography, according to the FBI affidavit. One video allegedly shows Gardner entering the bathroom and turning off the camera. Investigators also found images of an adult woman secretly filmed entering and exiting a bathtub, and identified her as Gardner's ex-girlfriend. That woman as well as the gym's owner, Candi Workman, told investigators the images appeared to come from Jump'In Gymnastics' facility in Purvis, Mississippi, which has since been closed. SafeSport's power has limits SafeSport has long touted that it can deliver sanctions in cases where criminal charges are not pursued as key to its mission. However, Gardner's ability to land a job in health care illustrates the limits of that power: It can ban people from sports but that sanction is not guaranteed to reach the general public. While not commenting about Gardner's case directly, it said in a statement provided to AP that a number of issues factor into why cases can take so long to close, including the 8,000 reports it receives a year with only around 30 full-time investigators. It has revamped some procedures, it said, in an attempt to become more efficient. 'While the Center is able and often does cooperate in law enforcement investigations,' it said, 'law enforcement is not required to share information, updates, or even confirm an investigation is ongoing.' USA Gymnastics President Li Li Leung called the center's task 'really tough, difficult to navigate.' 'I would like to see more consistency with their outcomes and sanctions,' Leung said. 'I would like to see more standardization on things. I would like to see more communication, more transparency from their side.' A case that lingers, even after the SafeSport ban As the investigation proceeded, Gardner said on his Facebook page he had landed a new job in May 2024 as a surgical technologist at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center. It's a role that calls for positioning patients on the operating room table, and assisting with procedures and post-surgery care. Asked about Gardner's employment, hospital spokesman Todd Mizener told the AP: 'The only information I can provide is that he is no longer" at the hospital. Meanwhile, the case lingers, leaving lives in limbo more than three years after the SafeSport Center and police first learned of it. 'SafeSport is now part of a larger problem rather than a solution, if it was ever a solution,' said attorney Silvey. 'The most fundamental professional task such as coordination with local or federal law enforcement gets botched on a daily basis, hundreds of times a year now.'
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Los Angeles Times
4 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Former coach at renowned Iowa-based gymnastics academy arrested by FBI
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The U.S. gymnastics world was only just recovering from a devastating sexual abuse scandal when a promising young coach moved from Mississippi to Iowa to take a job in 2018 at an elite academy known for training Olympic champions. Liang 'Chow' Qiao, the owner of Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, thought highly enough of his new hire, Sean Gardner, to put him in charge of the club's premier junior event and to coach some of its most promising girls. But four years later, Gardner was gone from Chow's with little notice. USA Gymnastics, the organization rocked by the Larry Nassar sex-abuse crisis that led to the creation of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, had been informed by the watchdog group that Gardner was suspended from all contact with gymnasts. The reason for Gardner's removal wasn't disclosed. But court records obtained exclusively by The Associated Press show the coach was accused of sexually abusing at least three young gymnasts at Chow's and secretly recording others undressing in a gym bathroom at his prior job in Mississippi. Last week, more than three years after being suspended from coaching, the FBI arrested Gardner, 38, on a federal child pornography charge. But his disciplinary case has still not been resolved by SafeSport, which handles sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports. In cases like Gardner's, the public can be in the dark for years while SafeSport investigates and sanctions coaches. SafeSport requires that allegations be reported to police to ensure abusers don't run unchecked outside of sports, but critics say the system is a slow, murky process. 'From an outward operational view, it seems that if SafeSport is involved in any way, the situation turns glow-in-the-dark toxic,' said attorney Steve Silvey, a longtime SafeSport critic who has represented people in cases involving the center. While acknowledging there can be delays as its investigations unfold, SafeSport defended its temporary suspensions in a statement as 'a unique and valuable intervention' when there are concerns of a risk to others. Nevertheless, in 2024, Gardner was able to land a job helping care for surgical patients at an Iowa hospital — two years after the abuse allegations against him were reported to SafeSport and the police. And it was not until late May that West Des Moines police executed a search warrant at his home, eventually leading to the recovery of a trove of photos and videos on his computer and cellphone of nude young girls, court records show. Authorities in Iowa sealed the court documents after the AP asked about the investigation earlier this month, before details of the federal charge were made public Friday. Gardner, Qiao and Gardner's former employer in Mississippi did not respond to AP requests for comment. Chow's Gymnastics is best known as the academy where U.S. gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas trained before becoming gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Qiao opened the gym in 1998 after starring on the Chinese national team and moving to the United States to coach at the University of Iowa. The gym became a draw for top youth gymnasts, with some families moving to Iowa to train there. Gardner moved to Iowa in September 2018, jumping at the opportunity to coach under Qiao. 'This is the job that I've always wanted. Chow is really someone I have looked up to since I've been coaching,' Gardner told the ABC affiliate WOI-TV in 2019. 'And you can tell when you step foot in the gym, just even from coaching the girls, the culture that he's built. It's amazing. It's beautiful.' A year later, Gardner was promoted to director of Chow's Winter Classic, an annual meet that draws more than 1,000 gymnasts to Iowa. He also coached a junior Olympics team during his four-year tenure at Chow's. Several of his students earned college gymnastics scholarships, but Gardner said he had bigger goals. 'You want to leave a thumbprint on their life, so when they go off hopefully to school, to bigger and better things, that they remember Chow's as family,' he said in a 2020 interview with WOI-TV. Gardner is accused of abusing his position at Chow's and his former job at Jump'In Gymnastics in Mississippi to prey on girls under his tutelage, according to a nine-page FBI affidavit released Friday that summarizes the allegations against him. A girl reported to SafeSport in March 2022 that Gardner used 'inappropriate spotting techniques' in which he would put his hands between her legs and touch her vagina, the affidavit said. It said she alleged Gardner would ask girls if they were sexually active and call them 'idiots, sluts, and whores.' She said this behavior began after his hiring in 2018 and continued until she left the gym in 2020 and provided the names of six other potential victims. SafeSport suspended Gardner in July 2022 — four months after the girl's report — a provisional step it can take in severe cases with 'sufficient evidentiary support' as investigations proceed. A month after that, the center received a report from another girl alleging additional 'sexual contact and physical abuse,' including that Gardner similarly fondled her during workouts, the FBI affidavit said. The girl said that he once dragged her across the carpet so hard that it burned her buttocks, the affidavit said. SafeSport shared the reports with West Des Moines police, in line with its policy requiring adults who interact with youth athletes to disclose potential criminal cases to law enforcement. While SafeSport's suspension took Gardner out of gymnastics, the criminal investigation quickly hit a roadblock. Police records show a detective told SafeSport to urge the alleged victims to file criminal complaints, but only one of their mothers contacted police in 2022. That woman said her daughter did not want to pursue criminal charges, and police suspended the investigation. Victims of abuse are often reluctant to cooperate with police, said Ken Lang, a retired detective and associate professor of criminal justice at Milligan University. 'In this case you have the prestige of this facility,' he said. 'Do they want to associate their name with that, in that way, when their aspirations were to succeed in gymnastics?' Police suspended the investigation, even as Gardner was on probation for his second-offense of driving while intoxicated. The case stayed dormant until April 2024 when another former Chow's student came forward to the West Des Moines Police Department to report abuse allegations, according to a now-sealed affidavit signed by police detective Jeff Lyon. The AP is not identifying the student in line with its policy of not naming victims of alleged sexual abuse. The now 18-year-old told police she began taking lessons from Gardner when she was 11 or 12 in 2019, initially seeing him as a 'father figure' who tried to help her get through her parents' divorce. He told her she could tell him 'anything,' the affidavit said. When she moved in 2021, she told police, he gave her a hug and said she could text and follow him on Instagram and other social media sites, where he went by the nickname 'Coach Seanie,' because gym policy barring such contact no longer applied. According to a summary of her statement provided in Lyon's affidavit, she said Gardner fondled her during exercises, repeatedly touching her vagina; rubbed her back and butt and discussed his sex life; and made her do inappropriate stretches that exposed her privates. She told police she suspected he used his cellphone to film her in that position. Reached by the AP, the teen's mother declined comment. The mother told police she was interested in a monetary settlement with Chow's because the gym 'had been made aware of the complaints and they did nothing to stop them,' according to Lyon's affidavit. The gym didn't return AP messages seeking comment. It took 16 months after the teen's 2024 report for the FBI to arrest Gardner, who made an initial court appearance in Des Moines on Friday on a charge of producing visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which can carry up to 30 years in prison. A public defender assigned to represent him didn't return AP messages seeking comment. It's unclear why the case took so long to investigate and also when the FBI, which had to pay $138 million to Nassar's victims for botching that investigation, got involved in the case. Among evidence seized by investigators in late May were a cellphone, laptop and a desktop computer along with handwritten notes between Gardner and his former pupils, according to the sealed court documents. They found images of girls, approximately 6 to 14 years in age, who were nude, using the toilet or changing into leotards, those documents show. Those images appear to have come from a hidden camera in a restroom. They also uncovered 50 video files and 400 photos, including some that appeared to be child pornography, according to the FBI affidavit. One video allegedly shows Gardner entering the bathroom and turning off the camera. Investigators also found images of an adult woman secretly filmed entering and exiting a bathtub, and identified her as Gardner's ex-girlfriend. That woman as well as the gym's owner, Candi Workman, told investigators the images appeared to come from Jump'In Gymnastics' facility in Purvis, Miss., which has since been closed. SafeSport has long touted that it can deliver sanctions in cases where criminal charges are not pursued as key to its mission. However, Gardner's ability to land a job in health care illustrates the limits of that power: It can ban people from sports but that sanction is not guaranteed to reach the general public. While not commenting about Gardner's case directly, it said in a statement provided to AP that a number of issues factor into why cases can take so long to close, including the 8,000 reports it receives a year with only around 30 full-time investigators. It has revamped some procedures, it said, in an attempt to become more efficient. 'While the Center is able and often does cooperate in law enforcement investigations,' it said, 'law enforcement is not required to share information, updates, or even confirm an investigation is ongoing.' USA Gymnastics President Li Li Leung called the center's task 'really tough, difficult to navigate.' 'I would like to see more consistency with their outcomes and sanctions,' Leung said. 'I would like to see more standardization on things. I would like to see more communication, more transparency from their side.' As the investigation proceeded, Gardner said on his Facebook page he had landed a new job in May 2024 as a surgical technologist at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center. It's a role that calls for positioning patients on the operating room table, and assisting with procedures and post-surgery care. Asked about Gardner's employment, hospital spokesman Todd Mizener told the AP: 'The only information I can provide is that he is no longer' at the hospital. Meanwhile, the case lingers, leaving lives in limbo more than three years after the SafeSport Center and police first learned of it. 'SafeSport is now part of a larger problem rather than a solution, if it was ever a solution,' said attorney Silvey. 'The most fundamental professional task such as coordination with local or federal law enforcement gets botched on a daily basis, hundreds of times a year now.' Foley and Pells write for the Associated Press. AP reporter Will Graves contributed.
