Recalling the injury her now-arrested coach inflicted on her and lots of of her gymnast buddies, Finley Weldon mentioned she feels a way of pleasure.
Free from the grip that Sean Gardner had throughout her years of coaching at an Iowa academy recognized for producing Olympians, Weldon instructed 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 12 months 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 every week after Gardner was arrested on a baby sexual exploitation cost.
“I didn’t need him to remove something from me, particularly one thing that I like,” she mentioned. “Not one of the women that I began with or went by means of the issues that I did with Sean are nonetheless doing gymnastics at this time. In order that’s one thing I’m very pleased with.”
She’s additionally completely satisfied she’s made a distinction, in the identical means 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 means of and the way authorities did not curb it.
The AP usually doesn’t determine victims of sexual abuse, however Weldon mentioned she needed “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 should undergo what I went by means of,” Weldon mentioned.
“I knew it could simply be a steady cycle if no person did.”
Gymnasts reported abuse to watchdog in 2022
The FBI mentioned 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 relationship 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 towards Gardner to the US Heart for SafeSport in March 2022, alleging he fondled her throughout coaching periods, in accordance with an FBI affidavit.
That woman offered the names of six different of Gardner’s potential victims, in accordance with the affidavit. Weldon mentioned she spoke with a SafeSport investigator about her abuse on the time.
SafeSport, a watchdog created after the Nassar scandal to research 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 mentioned its investigation was closed in 2022 when the preliminary accuser determined she didn’t need to pursue expenses.
Weldon mentioned police by no means reached out to her in 2022 however she’s not sure whether or not she would have needed to press expenses then. She mentioned she got here ahead in April 2024 at age 16 after she matured and started to appreciate the severity of her abuse.
She praised police for doing “an incredible job” protecting 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 mentioned.
Police defend investigative efforts
Iowa investigators say they searched Gardner’s dwelling in Might and seized digital gadgets that contained photos of nude women from a hidden digicam Gardner positioned within the lavatory of a Purvis, Mississippi, gymnasium the place he beforehand labored.
West Des Moines Police Sgt. Daniel Wade mentioned 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 mentioned, “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 digicam. Federal and state investigations stay lively, and extra expenses are potential.
Wade defended the division’s investigative efforts over the past three years. He mentioned investigators “went as far with it as we might” in 2022, and not using a 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 “traces of communication with totally different folks” that later paid off.
Weldon mentioned she met with investigators Tuesday they usually requested her to determine herself in a picture Gardner allegedly secretly took of her in a weak stretching place.
Defending the ‘male determine in my life’
Weldon mentioned her aim since she was a lady was to succeed in the elite degree within the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic program for many who purpose to compete internationally.
She mentioned 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 outdated.
Weldon mentioned she was struggling as her mother and father went by means of a divorce and her father was largely absent from her life. She mentioned Gardner sought to fill that function by telling her she might inform him “something” and that he would all the time be there for her.
In hindsight, she mentioned he was manipulating her in an effort to acquire her belief.
Finley’s mom, Julie Weldon, mentioned she heard considerations about Gardner from different mother and father at Chow’s early on and requested her daughter whether or not her coach had ever completed something inappropriate. Finley mentioned she falsely instructed her mom no as a result of she was defending the “male determine in my life.”
Inappropriate conduct progressed
She mentioned Gardner started touching her inappropriately in 2019 throughout classes, starting with lengthy hugs and pats on the again. She mentioned his conduct progressed, and he started touching her butt throughout the hugs and requiring her to stretch for prolonged durations in positions that uncovered her vagina and anus out of her leotard.
She mentioned 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 through which he yelled and threw sneakers at her, telling her she’d by no means attain elite standing. She mentioned she walked out and instructed her mother she needed to give up.
She mentioned a lot of her classmates give up or didn’t return due to Gardner’s conduct after the gymnasium shut down throughout 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 mentioned she ultimately 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 mentioned she was struck by how a lot heavier and unkempt he appeared.
“He’s undoubtedly like gone by means of a spiral,” she mentioned. “I feel he most likely simply had a lot guilt constructed up in him that he sort of was that.”
