Recalling the injury her now-arrested coach inflicted on her and plenty of of her gymnast associates, Finley Weldon stated she feels a way of satisfaction.
Free from the grip that Sean Gardner had throughout her years of coaching at an Iowa academy recognized for producing Olympians, Weldon advised The Related Press in an unique interview that she is among the many few who survived his abuse and are nonetheless within the sport.
The 18-year-old is heading into her freshman yr at Iowa State College, the place she’ll be a member of the Cyclones gymnastics crew. She spoke with the AP on Wednesday, lower than per week after Gardner was arrested on a toddler sexual exploitation cost.
“I didn’t need him to remove something from me, particularly one thing that I really like,” she stated. “Not one of the women that I began with or went by the issues that I did with Sean are nonetheless doing gymnastics as we speak. In order that’s one thing I’m very happy with.”
She’s additionally glad she’s made a distinction, in the identical method gymnasts she admires — like Aly Raisman, an Olympian whose visceral accounts of abuse by Larry Nassar shined a highlight on the trauma gymnasts went by and the way authorities did not curb it.
The AP typically doesn’t determine victims of sexual abuse, however Weldon stated she wished “my identify on the market as a result of I used to be the one who did come ahead.”
“I felt like I wanted to talk out to cease it from occurring to different little women, in order that they didn’t need to undergo what I went by,” Weldon stated.
“I knew it will simply be a steady cycle if no person did.”
Gymnasts reported abuse to watchdog in 2022
The FBI stated Tuesday it believes Gardner “focused youngsters” whereas teaching at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, and gymnasiums in Mississippi and Louisiana the place he labored courting again to 2004.
Gardner, 38, didn’t return AP messages left on his cellphone earlier than his arrest, and has not entered a plea to the cost. A public defender who represented him after his arrest hasn’t returned messages.
One other former gymnast at Chow’s, the academy recognized for producing Olympic gold medalists Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas, first reported sexual abuse allegations in opposition to Gardner to the US Middle for SafeSport in March 2022, alleging he fondled her throughout coaching periods, based on an FBI affidavit.
That woman supplied the names of six different of Gardner’s potential victims, based on the affidavit. Weldon stated she spoke with a SafeSport investigator about her abuse on the time.
SafeSport, a watchdog created after the Nassar scandal to analyze misconduct complaints, knowledgeable the West Des Moines Police Division in regards to the allegations. It suspended Gardner from teaching or having contact with any gymnasts in July 2022.
The police division stated its investigation was closed in 2022 when the preliminary accuser determined she didn’t need to pursue expenses.
Weldon stated police by no means reached out to her in 2022 however she’s not sure whether or not she would have wished to press expenses then. She stated she got here ahead in April 2024 at age 16 after she matured and commenced to understand the severity of her abuse.
She praised police for doing “an incredible job” maintaining her knowledgeable in regards to the progress of the case.
“It’s undoubtedly taken awhile, however I imply, even I didn’t understand what number of steps there could be to cost him with something,” she stated.
Police defend investigative efforts
Iowa investigators say they searched Gardner’s residence in Might and seized digital gadgets that contained photos of nude women from a hidden digital camera Gardner positioned within the rest room of a Purvis, Mississippi, fitness center the place he beforehand labored.
West Des Moines Police Sgt. Daniel Wade stated Wednesday the division sought the FBI’s help in mid-July when the case’s “scope began to broaden.” Requested why the division didn’t contain FBI sooner, he stated, “We name the FBI when the time is true.”
Gardner is charged in federal court docket in Mississippi with producing visible depictions of minors participating in sexually express conduct associated to the alleged hidden digital camera. Federal and state investigations stay energetic, and extra expenses are potential.
Wade defended the division’s investigative efforts during the last three years. He stated investigators “went as far with it as we may” in 2022, with no sufferer looking for expenses and have been conducting a radical investigation since receiving the brand new grievance in 2024.
Wade declined touch upon whether or not investigators reached out to Weldon and different potential victims recognized in 2022, saying solely that police opened “strains of communication with completely different individuals” that later paid off.
Weldon stated she met with investigators Tuesday they usually requested her to determine herself in a picture Gardner allegedly secretly took of her in a susceptible stretching place.
Defending the ‘male determine in my life’
Weldon stated her purpose since she was a woman was to succeed in the elite stage within the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic program for many who purpose to compete internationally.
She stated she began coaching at Chow’s after her household moved to Iowa in 2015. She started taking personal classes with Gardner two or 3 times per week shortly after he joined Chow’s in September 2018, when she 11 years previous.
Weldon stated she was struggling as her dad and mom went by a divorce and her father was largely absent from her life. She stated Gardner sought to fill that function by telling her she may inform him “something” and that he would all the time be there for her.
In hindsight, she stated he was manipulating her in an effort to achieve her belief.
Finley’s mom, Julie Weldon, stated she heard considerations about Gardner from different dad and mom at Chow’s early on and requested her daughter whether or not her coach had ever carried out something inappropriate. Finley stated she falsely advised her mom no as a result of she was defending the “male determine in my life.”
Inappropriate habits progressed
She stated Gardner started touching her inappropriately in 2019 throughout classes, starting with lengthy hugs and pats on the again. She stated his habits progressed, and he started touching her butt through the hugs and requiring her to stretch for prolonged intervals in positions that uncovered her vagina and anus out of her leotard.
She stated round 2020 he started touching her vagina whereas recognizing her throughout workouts. She recalled as soon as telling him to not put his palms there and he claimed it was an accident as a result of her “leotard was slippery.”
Weldon recalled reaching her breaking level with Gardner after a 2021 coaching during which he yelled and threw sneakers at her, telling her she’d by no means attain elite standing. She stated she walked out and advised her mother she wished to give up.
She stated lots of her classmates give up or didn’t return due to Gardner’s conduct after the fitness center shut down through the pandemic. However whereas he made her hate gymnastics at instances, she continued coaching when her household moved to Texas after which to Utah. She stated she finally proved Gardner incorrect by incomes elite standing and a spot on a Division 1 crew.
After information of Gardner’s arrest, Weldon noticed his jail reserving picture within the AP story. She stated she was struck by how a lot heavier and unkempt he appeared.
“He’s undoubtedly like gone by a spiral,” she stated. “I believe he in all probability simply had a lot guilt constructed up in him that he form of changed into that.”
