Former U.S. Olympic gymnastics coach John Geddert committed suicide Thursday, hours after he was charged with two dozen felony counts of abuse he physically, emotionally and sexually abused the gymnasts under his care.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel confirmed that Geddert committed suicide Thursday afternoon and described his death as “a tragic end to a tragic story for all involved.”
Michigan State Police confirmed Geddert’s body was found at a rest stop on an interstate at 3:24 p.m. ET this afternoon.
Geddert, 63, was scheduled to be tried in Eaton County, Michigan, Thursday afternoon.
Michigan officials have charged Geddert with 24 felony counts: 20 counts of human trafficking and forced labor, one count of first-degree sexual assault, one count of second-degree sexual assault, organized crime, and lying to a police officer. A lawyer for the Michigan attorney general’s office also said Thursday that Geddert knew that U.S. Gymnastic doctor Larry Nassar was sexually abusing patients at the gym where the two men worked and lied to police at the respect during a 2016 investigation into Nassar.
The rest of the charges against Geddert are linked to his own behavior with the gymnasts he trained at the gyms he had in Michigan. Law enforcement began investigating Geddert in February 2018 following complaints about his abusive training style during Nassar’s sentencing hearing.
Geddert previously owned Twistars USA Gymnastics in Dimondale, Michigan, on the outskirts of Lansing, where dozens of women say Nassar sexually assaulted them on the pretext of receiving medical treatment. Geddert and Nassar worked side by side for more than a quarter of a century as they both reached the top in elite gymnastics.
Geddert has long been seen within the gymnastics community as one of Nassar’s top facilitators. As early as the late 1980s, at the Great Lakes Gymnastics Club in Lansing, before even being a licensed physician, Nassar began sexually assaulting underage gymnasts at his training table, according to reports from several women. .
The former coach rose to national fame in the early 2000s and was named coach of the United States national team for the 2012 London Olympics. His role as national coach led him to travel. around the world with the best gymnasts in the United States. Many of these gymnasts, including all the members of the famous Fierce Five who won gold in London, say that Nassar abused them during his international travels.
Former Olympian McKayla Maroney says she was in a car with Geddert on one of those international trips to Tokyo during the 2011 World Championships. During the car trip, Maroney gave a graphic description of how Nassar had touched him from improperly during a treatment session the night before, according to several people who heard his comments. Geddert did not react at the time according to passenger accounts in the car, but has since denied hearing Maroney’s comments.
USA Gymnastics suspended Geddert during Nassar’s sentencing hearing in January 2018 amid an avalanche of public complaints from former gymnasts, who described his abusive training style. Geddert announced that he was retiring as coach days after USA Gymnastics suspended him. Transfer 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 face criminal charges arising from the Nassar case. Former USA Gymnastics chief executive Steve Penny was arrested on charges of manipulating evidence in 2018. In the state of Michigan, where Nassar worked, former president Lou Anna Simon, the former dean of the medical school William Strampel and former gymnastics coach Kathie Klages were charged with crimes. Strampel, Nassar’s former chief, served eight months in a one-year prison sentence before being released last spring. Klages was found guilty of lying to police in August 2020 and sentenced to 90 days in prison. Charges against Simon were dismissed in May 2020, but the attorney general’s office is appealing that decision, Nessel said Thursday.
Nassar, 57, is currently serving a 60-year prison sentence on child pornography charges at a federal prison near Orlando, Florida, but is also facing an additional maximum of up to 175 years in prison for his sentences for state offices in Ingham and Eaton, Michigan County. Earlier this month, Nassar appealed his case to the Michigan Supreme Court. Nessel said Thursday that Nassar’s trial court ruling should be upheld and described it as “a fair and equitable sentence.”