Last week the FBI arrested gymnastics coach Sean Gardner, 38, on a federal child pornography charge. The arrest comes more than three years after he was suspended from coaching at Chows Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, for alleged sexual abuse.Court records obtained by The Associated Press show Gardner was accused of sexually abusing at least three young gymnasts at Chows and secretly recording others undressing in a gym bathroom at his previous place of employment at JumpIn Gymnastics & Tumbling in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMChows is the gym where U.S. gymnast stars Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas trained before becoming gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.Gardner told the ABC affiliate WOI-TV in 2019 that his position at Chow's was the job he's "always wanted.""This is the job that Ive always wanted. Chow is really someone I have looked up to since Ive been coaching," Gardner told the station. "And you can tell when you step foot in the gym, just even from coaching the girls, the culture that hes built. Its amazing. Its beautiful."A year later, Gardner was promoted to director of Chows 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 Chows.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 Chows as family," Gardner said in a 2020 interview with WOI-TV.Fox News Digital has reached out to Chows Gymnastics and Dance Institute for comment.A girl reported to SafeSport in March 2022 that Gardner used "inappropriate spotting techniques" in which he would put his hands between her legs, the affidavit said.FORMER STAR GYMNAST SLAMS USA GYMNASTICS FOR TRANS ATHLETE POLICY HANDLINGIt 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. She provided the names of six other potential victims.In April 2024, another of Chows former athletes 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.Gardner is now being detained at the Polk County Jail in Des Moines and will be transported to Mississippi to face the charge there, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service said.Among the evidence seized by investigators in late May was 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 of 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 Gardners ex-girlfriend. That woman, as well as the gyms owner, Candi Workman, told investigators the images appeared to come from JumpIn Gymnastics facility in Purvis, Mississippi.Gardner appeared in a Des Moines courtroom 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.The Associated Press contributed to this report.Follow Fox News Digitalssports coverage on X, and subscribe tothe Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.