John Geddert: Twistars Abuse, 24 Felony Charges, and Suicide

John Geddert was the head coach of the 2012 U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team and the longtime owner of Twistars USA Gymnastics Club in Michigan. On February 25, 2021, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged him with 24 felonies, including human trafficking, forced labor, racketeering, and criminal sexual conduct, based on decades of alleged abuse of young gymnasts and his role alongside convicted serial abuser Larry Nassar. Hours after the charges were announced, and before he could turn himself in for arraignment, Geddert died by suicide at a rest stop on I-96.¹

The Coach Behind the Fierce Five

Geddert coached at Great Lakes Gymnastics in Lansing from 1984 to 1996, then founded Twistars USA Gymnastics Club in Dimondale, Michigan, with his wife, Kathryn, in 1996. His teams compiled a 2,445–63 record in state championship competitions, and Twistars became one of the country’s premier elite training facilities.²

In 2012, he was named head coach of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team at the London Olympics. That squad, the “Fierce Five” of Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, and Kyla Ross, won team gold. Geddert was named U.S. Elite Coach of the Year the same year.²

What Gymnasts Said Happened at Twistars

Former athletes described Geddert spitting in their faces, stomping on their bare feet, twisting their arms, and shoving them into walls. He berated gymnasts about their weight and intelligence and, in multiple accounts, told them to kill themselves. One survivor recalled him telling her to climb the rafters of the gym and jump.³

Gymnasts said they were forced to train through serious injuries. One trained on a broken neck; another was made to continue with a fractured fibula. Two teenage gymnasts attempted suicide, which they attributed to the environment at the gym. Brittany Aragon overdosed on Valium in 2012 out of terror at the prospect of returning to practice.⁴

Sarah Klein, an attorney and former gymnast who trained under Geddert for more than a decade starting at age eight, described the gym culture as “cult-like” and “brutal.” She said she would choose “17 years of almost daily sexual abuse at the hands of Larry Nassar” over spending one more day with Geddert.⁵

The Nassar Connection

Geddert’s coaching career was inseparable from that of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University team doctor sentenced in 2018 to two life terms for sexual assault and child pornography. The two worked together for roughly 20 years, and Geddert was a member of Nassar’s 1996 wedding party.⁴

Nassar served as team doctor at Twistars, where Geddert gave him unrestricted access to gymnasts every Monday night in a back room. Three of Nassar’s ten sexual assault convictions involved abuse at the Twistars facility.⁶ Survivors described a dynamic in which Geddert broke athletes down mentally and physically, then sent them to Nassar for treatment. Nassar acted as a supposed refuge but used that trust to assault them under the guise of medical care.⁷

Prosecutors alleged that Geddert knew. A federal lawsuit alleged that as early as 1997, a Twistars parent told Geddert about Nassar’s conduct and Geddert took no action.⁴ At least one victim testified that Geddert walked in on an instance of Nassar’s abuse.⁶ After a 2013 incident in which an 11-year-old gymnast reported that Geddert had shoved her into a wall, Nassar texted the girl’s grandmother, pleading with her to drop the police report to avoid “closing John’s gym and having him banned from USAG for the rest of his life.”³ Even after USA Gymnastics and Michigan State severed ties with Nassar, Geddert publicly called him an “extremely professional physician” as late as September 2016.

Complaints That Went Nowhere for Decades

Warnings about Geddert stretched back years. A CNN investigation identified four police complaints against him dating to 1986 for assault in or around a gym; none resulted in charges.⁴ Prosecutors declined to charge him in 2011 after a parent said he chest-bumped her, and again in 2013 after the 11-year-old gymnast reported being pushed into a wall. The 2013 case ended with Geddert ordered to undergo counseling and provide a written apology.⁸

In December 2013, a former Twistars coach sent an eight-page letter to then-USAG President Steve Penny stating that Geddert “should not be allowed to coach gymnastics.”⁴ USA Gymnastics hired former Michigan State Police trooper Don Brooks, who submitted four reports in 2014 corroborating many of the allegations, including a gymnast’s suicide attempt and injuries caused by Geddert’s conduct. Brooks noted that gymnasts he interviewed feared retaliation and expressed “disappointment Geddert did not receive a suspension or a harsher punishment.”⁸

USA Gymnastics did not suspend him. Instead, after a meeting between Geddert, Penny, and a USAG board member, the organization crafted “specific directions and expectations” for his coaching style. According to Assistant Attorney General Danielle Hagaman-Clark, Geddert never implemented them.⁸

USA Gymnastics finally suspended him on January 22, 2018, more than three years after receiving the Brooks reports. The immediate trigger was victim impact statements at Nassar’s sentencing, where gymnasts called Geddert an “enabler” who deserved to “sit behind bars, right next to Larry.”⁹ Hours later, Geddert announced his retirement by email and transferred management of Twistars to his wife.²

The 24 Felony Charges

Attorney General Nessel announced the charges on February 25, 2021, following a two-year investigation involving the Michigan State Police, the Eaton County Sheriff’s Office, and the Eaton County Prosecutor.¹⁰ The counts were:

14 counts of human trafficking, forced labor causing injury (15-year felony each)
6 counts of human trafficking of a minor for forced labor (20-year felony each)
1 count of continuing criminal enterprise, or racketeering (20-year felony)
1 count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct (life offense)
1 count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct (15-year felony)
1 count of lying to a peace officer during a violent crime investigation (4-year felony)

Prosecutors argued that Geddert used “coercion, intimidation, threats and physical force” to compel athletes to train through injury, meeting Michigan’s legal definition of forced labor. They said he sold his reputation as an Olympic-level coach to “unsuspecting parents,” promising to turn their children into world-class athletes while subjecting them to an abusive environment.¹⁰ The application of human trafficking statutes to a coaching context was unusual, and prosecutors said it fit because Geddert ignored reported injuries and relied on Nassar rather than independent doctors to keep injured gymnasts training.¹¹

The sexual conduct charges related to a specific 2012 incident involving a 14-year-old gymnast. An investigator testified at a probable cause hearing that Geddert followed the girl into the Twistars locker room after practice, threw her against a wall, groped her, and digitally penetrated her. During the assault, he allegedly told her, “This wouldn’t be happening if you just completed my assignment at practice like you were supposed to the day before.” The victim found blood in her underwear afterward, vomited repeatedly, and cried herself to sleep.³ The false-statement count related to what Nessel’s office described as misleading statements Geddert made to investigators about his knowledge of Nassar’s conduct.¹⁰

Suicide the Same Day

Geddert was expected to turn himself in at the Eaton County Sheriff’s Office substation in Delta Township at 2:15 p.m. that day for arraignment before Judge Julie O’Neill. He never appeared. At 3:24 p.m., Michigan State Police troopers found his body at a rest area on eastbound I-96 in Clinton County. The Attorney General’s office confirmed he had taken his own life.¹

Nessel released a brief statement: “My office has been notified that the body of John Geddert was found late this afternoon after taking his own life. This is a tragic end to a tragic story for everyone involved.”¹¹

How Survivors Responded

Lindsey Lemke, a former Twistars gymnast who had said Geddert hit her with a mat during practice, said the charges had felt like “a light at the end of the tunnel.” After his suicide, she said: “We’ll never have closure, we’ll never have answers, we’ll never get to see him convicted.”¹²

Sarah Klein called the suicide a final act of “narcissistic control” and “an insult to his victims,” saying Geddert had “always been above the law.” She added: “In my view there’s no greater admission of guilt than being charged and immediately taking your own life.”⁵

Aly Raisman, who trained under Geddert for the 2012 Games, called for a “fully independent investigation” of USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. “Monsters don’t thrive for decades without the help of people,” she said, noting that as a minor on the National Team she frequently traveled without her parents “under the supervision of USA Gymnastics,” with the responsible adults including “John Geddert, Marvin Sharpe, Steve Penny, and Larry Nassar.”¹³

What Happened to Twistars and the Civil Cases

Because Geddert died before arraignment, the criminal case ended without a trial or a conviction. The civil litigation continued around him. By early 2020, insurers for Twistars, Kathryn Geddert, and John Geddert had agreed to pay $2.1 million to settle claims brought by Nassar’s victims, separate from a proposed $215 million settlement between USA Gymnastics and survivors through the organization’s bankruptcy.¹⁴

The gym itself changed hands. Kathryn Geddert ran it after her husband’s 2018 retirement, and on December 31, 2020, its assets were purchased by Bryon Hough, who rebranded the facility as Capital City Flips. Kathryn Geddert stayed on as an employee to assist with coaching through June 2021, and the Twistars name was retired.¹⁵

1
Michigan Public. Ex-Olympic Coach, Nassar Associate John Geddert Found Dead After Felony Charges Announced
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Lansing State Journal. Timeline: John Geddert
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ESPN. Court Documents Detail Deceased Coach John Geddert’s Alleged Abuse
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CNN. John Geddert Abuse
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NBC News. John Geddert Accuser Sarah Klein
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Lansing State Journal. John Geddert Still Under Investigation
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New York Times. Geddert, Nassar, and Gymnastics Abuse
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Lansing State Journal. Geddert USA Gymnastics Abuse, Trafficking, Sex Assault, Nassar
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ABC News. USA Gymnastics Suspends Olympics Coach With Ties to Larry Nassar
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Michigan Department of Attorney General. AG Nessel’s Office Files 24 Criminal Charges Against Twistars USA Gymnastics Coach John Geddert
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NPR. John Geddert, Former USA Gymnastics Coach, Facing Criminal Charges
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ABC News. Abuse Survivors Call for Justice After John Geddert’s Death
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New York Post. Aly Raisman Slams USA Gymnastics After Coach John Geddert’s Suicide
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Lansing State Journal. Twistars, John and Kathryn Geddert, USA Gymnastics Nassar Settlement
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WILX. Twistars, the Gymnastics Club That Brought Home Olympic Gold, Has Been Sold