The Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested a former gymnastics coach on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, after he confessed to detectives that he had sexual intercourse twice with a girl he was coaching when she was younger than 16-years old.

The investigation began as a missing person case, when detectives were attempting to locate the (now adult) victim, after she failed to participate in a court-ordered detox program. 

The victim was located by detectives at the Lakeland home of 28-year old Alexander Katchalov, her former gymnastics coach. The victim used to attend gymnastics classes at Elite World Gymnastics in Lakeland, where Katchalov was formerly employed. 

Katchalov was already designated as a Florida Sexual Offender and on felony sexual offender probation following a prior conviction for Possession of Photograph Showing Sexual Performance of a Child (in 2017). The victim in the latest allegations against Katchalov was not a victim in his child pornography case.

Detectives interviewed the victim after locating her at Katchalov’s residence, and at that time, she had mentioned having a sexual relationship with Katchalov back when he was her coach. 

During the detectives’ initial interview with Katchalov, he denied having a sexual relationship with the victim when he was her coach, but he eventually claimed that he only had sexual intercourse with her two times when she was 15, and it happened two-weeks apart.

“Given this former gymnastic coach’s deviant background, it is possible that there could be more victims out there. If he has victimized anyone else, we want them to contact our detectives in the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit. He has a horribly twisted attraction to children, and he needs to be locked away.” – Grady Judd, Sheriff

Detectives also discovered that Katchalov violated his probation by using an unreported internet messaging system during correspondence with the victim and he also possessed an un-registered online gaming account. All “internet-identifiers” by Katchalov must be registered with the Sheriff’s Office per probationary guidelines. 

Alexander Katchalov was arrested and taken to the Sheriff’s Processing Center and charged with: Lewd Battery (F2, 2-counts), Failure to Comply with Sex Offender Registration (F3), and Violation of Probation. 

Katchalov was incarcerated in Florida State Prison between September 30, 2021 to August 24, 2022 following his conviction of child pornography possession. His probation was set to expire on August 23, 2029.