Former U.S. Olympic gymnastics coach John Geddert committed suicide on Thursday, hours after he was charged with two dozen crimes that stemmed from allegations that he physically, emotionally and sexually abused the gymnasts under his wing.
Michigan attorney General Dana Nessel confirmed that Geddert ended his life on Thursday afternoon, calling his death “a tragic end to a tragic story for everyone involved.”
Michigan State Police confirmed that Geddert’s body was found at a rest stop on the highway this afternoon at 3:24 p.m. ET.
Geddert, 63, was due to be charged Thursday afternoon in Eaton County, Michigan.
Michigan state officials charged Geddert with 24 crimes: 20 cases of human trafficking and forced labor, one count of first-degree sexual assault, one count of second-degree sexual assault, extortion and lying to a police officer. An attorney for the attorney general’s office in Michigan also said on Thursday that Geddert knew that American gymnastics physician Larry Nassar sexually assaulted patients at the gym where both men worked and lied about it during a 2016 investigation about Nassar.
The rest of the charges against Geddert relate to his own behavior with the gymnasts he trained in the gyms he owned in Michigan. Law enforcement began investigating Geddert in February 2018 in response to complaints about his abusive training style during Nassar’s hearing.
Geddert previously owned Twistars USA Gymnastics in Dimondale, Michigan, outside Lansing, where dozens of women say Nassar sexually assaulted them under the guise of medical treatment. Geddert and Nassar worked side by side for over a quarter of a century as they both rose to the top in elite gymnastics.
Geddert has long been recognized within the gymnastics community as one of Nassar’s foremost facilitators. As early as the late 1980s, at the Great Lakes Gymnastics Club in Lansing, Nassar, before he was even a licensed physician, began sexually assaulting underage gymnasts at his training table, according to reports from several women.
The former coach rose to national prominence in the early 2000s and was named coach of the United States national team for the 2012 London Olympics. His role as national team manager led him to travel the world with the best gymnasts from the US. Many of those gymnasts, including all the members of the famous Fierce Five who won gold in London, say they were abused by Nassar on his international travels.
Former Olympiad McKayla Maroney says she was in a car with Geddert on one of those international trips, in Tokyo during the 2011 World Championships. During the car ride, Maroney gave a graphic description of how Nassar had touched her in the wrong way during a treatment session that night. . according to several people who heard her comments. Geddert did not respond at the time based on stories from passengers in the car, but has since denied hearing Maroney’s comments.
USA Gymnastics suspended Geddert during Nassar’s January 2018 conviction amid a wave of public complaints from former gymnasts describing his abusive training style. Geddert announced he was retiring as a coach days after USA Gymnastics suspended him. He transferred ownership of Twistars USA to his wife and training partner in 2018. The gym was sold to new owners earlier this month.
He was the fifth person to be criminally charged as a result of the Nassar case. Former USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny was arrested in 2018 on allegations of evidence manipulation. In the state of Michigan, where Nassar worked, former president Lou Anna Simon, former dean of the medical school William Strampel and former gymnastics coach Kathie Klages were charged with crimes. Strampel, the former Nassar boss, served eight months of a one-year sentence before being released last spring. Klages was convicted in August 2020 of lying to the police and sentenced to 90 days in prison. Charges against Simon were dropped in May 2020, but the attorney general’s office is appealing that decision, Nessel said Thursday.
Nassar, 57, is currently serving a 60-year sentence for child pornography charges in a federal prison near Orlando, Florida, but could also face an additional prison sentence of up to 175 years for his sentences on allegations of the state in Ingham. And Eaton, Michigan County. Earlier this month, Nassar appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court. Nessel said Thursday that the Nassar court ruling should be upheld, describing it as “a fair and just punishment”.