Stuff and Nonsense

Did You Mean Mariah Carey?

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So, remember when the news came out that Aunt Becky paid $18 billion so that USC would pretend her daughters had seen a canoe before, and then you texted your fellow gym nerds a link to that article with the words “Maria Caire” underneath? No? Well anyway, the LA Times did.

Today’s piece about favoritism/nepotism in the inclusion of seeming civilians on UCLA athletic rosters features the story of Maria Caire, the Carmen Sandiego of college gymnastics whose mysterious semi-existence has been fascinating us for years, and who turns out to be the niece of one of Miss Val’s buddies (oh, look how that worked out). I’m obviously in heaven that this is a news story.

If you don’t recall, Maria Caire appeared on the UCLA roster in the fall of 2016. At first glance, her inclusion was fairly unremarkable because this always happens. It seemed like Caire was just one in the long line of UCLA freshmen who are never in a million years going to compete a routine but appear on the roster for one year and then disappear—or hang around as a manager or something and we’re told “you guys don’t see it, but she’s the most important member of the team.” She just seemed to be that year’s Matteah Brow (2016), Karli Dugas (2015) [Edit: Dugas’s L7 background may take her out of this category and put her closer to Caire’s, but at least she was a gymnast], Jessy Macarthur/Alex Waller (2014), Rachel Luba (2011), Danielle Greig/Courtney Shannon/Chloe Takayanagi (2010), Tiffany Hyland (2009), and…at this point I got tired of looking.

We have been making fun of that phenomenon since the dawn of time, but it ultimately seemed harmless. So some L10s train with the team and move mats and get water. Whatever.

And it should be mentioned that every once in a while, it actually worked out. When Sadiqua Bynum appeared on the roster in 2012, her JO results had not been very strong and seemed to indicate she might be yet another one (though training videos did demonstrate a ton of as-yet-unused potential and the possibility of high-level upgrades). She ended up turning into an absolutely essential contributor to the team on two events that no one would now put in the “who is she?” category, but that was a reasonable assumption at the time, as it was for her classmate Ellette Craddock who also turned into a lineup contributor.

Still, the difference is that all of those athletes—the ones who worked out and the ones who didn’t—were…athletes. Legitimate gymnasts with skills who had been L10 and competed at state competitions. For instance, right now UCLA has Mercedez Sanchez on the roster, and while we’re never going to see her in a lineup, she is an actual gymnast with routines who could have competed for other schools. Most top teams have gymnasts like that. Halley Taylor at Florida, Olivia Gunter and Rebecca D’Antonio at LSU, Sam Javanbakht at Michigan. That’s super normal, and there seems to be no issue with those gymnasts being on teams.

I would include the Wallers—who are not discussed in the piece—in that category as well, but it is a more complicated issue and a potential flashpoint for controversy because they obviously wouldn’t have been on that team without their dad, but the line of nepotism is difficult to draw because they were also both L10s and Alex had some legit skills and accomplishments in her pocket. When Sami Durante was planning to go to Georgia and compete for her mom before…you know…no one remotely had an issue with that because Sami Durante is clearly a high-level gymnast who can compete 9.9 routines for a top school. But where is the line between “you’ve earned it” and nepotism?

The difference between Caire and all of these other people mentioned was…is she even gymnastics? The evidence was scant, and all possible search methods were very disappointed that she was neither Mariah Carey nor the magazine Marie Claire and physically could not go on from there.

Something seemed to be up because she didn’t remotely have the gymnastics background to pretend that she might be a depth option on this or any team. This was a step much farther than your normal “well, UCLA lineups are tough to make” non-competing walk-on. But then she disappeared from the roster after one year—as they always do—and then we all forgot about it. Until this moment.

And there are many complicated issues at play here. First, there’s the question of, if she was legitimately admitted to the university on her academic credentials, what harm is there in letting her walk on to the team and hang around? There’s harm if she’s taking a spot or resources away from someone more deserving, but if not, it’s basically just an issue of a person getting to do something cool simply because they know the right people. Not great, but people suck, and that’s never going to change. Please join me in the corner, criticizing them as a form of protest.

At the same time, was she legitimately admitted to the university on her academic credentials? We don’t know. But if you were already admitted to the university on academic credentials, then why would you need to pretend to be a gymnast in the first place? And if you just wanted to be part of the experience and could use connections to do that, why not just come in purely as a manager with no pretense that you can kip?

Coming up with what seriously looks like a fake gymnastics career for this person who…maybe just did gymnastics recreationally a little bit?…brings up a lot of ugly questions about why it needed to happen in the first place. The logical answers end up looking pretty damning, as does this story of Val trying to get Cory on the golf team because…what? Had he ever seen a golf before? What was that even about?

Not helping matters are these attempted explanations like “oh, she might have contributed on vault…” (Nope.) Or “oh, if not for those untimely injuries…” (Nope.) We can see you. We know she wasn’t going to walk-on and then be able vault in a couple years. You’re thinking of Kendal Poston. This is Maria Caire. They would have been better off simply saying that UCLA makes a point of giving chances to people without the traditional credentials who can help the team in other ways beyond gymnastics, which they do. Or just telling us what actually happened. Maybe that.

84 thoughts on “Did You Mean Mariah Carey?”

  1. Real talk, I’ve been compulsively hitting refresh on this blog since I saw the LA Times story.

    1. On one hand the Cory Tomlinson admissions story sounds sketchy as hell; on the other hand the fact that everyone involved is so open about it makes it seem like they at least THINK it’s above-board. I didn’t know his father was a former UCLA gymnastics coach — I honestly thought Cory was just a random hanger-on.

  4. Also, Caire has been a team manager — at least, she was one this year. You can see it tucked away with the six other team managers (!!!) in their PDF media guide.

    1. She was a team manager longer than that. There’s a pic of her with a 2018 Championship ring.

  5. If red flags didn’t go up in the UCLA compliance office over the Cory Tomlinson article, then clearly they weren’t going to start side-eyeing the parade of gymnastics walk-ons. Of course this was all pre-Aunt Becky, which is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

    Honestly, I’m shocked at people’s shock over this. I’ve been rolling my eyes at the gigantic UCLA roster for years.

    1. I dunno, I think there’s a big and shock-worthy difference between having a big roster full of mediocre L10s who won’t get playing time, and having someone who genuinely does not do gymnastics. UCLA’s gigantic roster has mostly been of the former – Caire is an exception. Putting a bunch of Mercedez Sanchezes and Rachelle Dennises onto your roster is maybe silly, but putting Maria Caire on your roster is fraud.

      That Tomlinson article is pretty nauseating (and crazy that they think it’s ok to just admit all that stuff?) All the more so after reading the profile of another one of those “team managers,” who was an actual recruited D-1 level athlete whose injuries made it unable for her to compete. Not just the ostensibly charismatic child of a guy who was buddies with a coach.

      Despite my love for UCLA’s team I have always despised Val and I’m disappointed that this is getting coverage after her retirement. She should have to answer for this.

      1. Val is retired from Gym not UCLA. She has a new role at the university

  6. Maria Caire is the fakest-sounding name since Carmen SanDiego. Are we sure she’s not a Russian spy sent by Valentina??

  7. So…I think I found the Level 7 gymnast the article refers to, and one interesting thing the article doesn’t mention is that per mymeetscores, her last competition was about four years before she enrolled at UCLA? That seems…interesting.

      1. Karli went to Waller’s gym jam. It’s cool if she knew wanted to be a team manager her whole life, but she shouldn’t have been recruited to the gymnastics team as such. She should have sought admission through the normal, non-athlete process.

        I think it might also be interesting to look into the case of Mia Erdoes, a recruit for the class starting fall of 2021. She trains level 10 now (hasn’t competed), but was “recruited” as a level 9. Her mom is the CEO of JP Morgan Asset Management. A brief search shows her estimated net worth is $81 million.

        In the Erdoes case she probably has the ability to gain admission to any college, with such an influential and monied parent. It seems she specifically wants to do gymnastics. But I’m sure there are countless gymnasts who just want to be on the UCLA team and they don’t get afforded the opportunity of being recruited as a level 9.

      2. Before we malign Erdoes, she was the level 9 Eastern’s AA champion, and champion on 2/4 events (I think?), the year before she committed. That’s the equivalent of winning JO’s at level 10. So I suspect that if she wanted to come to UCLA, and she doesn’t need a scholarship obviously due to her net worth, they would be happy for her commitment. If you’re winning at the national level at level 9, there is an expectation you will continue to progress. She isn’t just a random level 9 with no accolades. And a verbal means nothing in the long run anyway if it doesn’t pan out.

  8. “Had he ever seen a golf before?”

    OK either the word ‘ball/club/iron/putter’ is missing from the sentence or Spencer knows nothing about golf… What is the truth?

    4. The truth is that the way the sentence is constructed is the joke, and you didn’t get it.

    5. Pretty sure he wrote it that way on purpose, similar to when people jokingly say “The Googles” when making fun of someone who doesn’t know how to use computers/Google 😛

    6. It’s satire. It’s saying Cory is so unfamiliar with the sport of golf that he thinks there is something in the game called “a golf.”

  9. It’s hilarious that self-proclaimed “Influencer” Cory Tomlinson thinks he’s a male model. Um you can’t be a male model if you have the same body as Maxi Gnauck at the 1981 Worlds.

    1. @ the shitty part of this comment – maybe you can be a male model with an unusual figure – there’s certainly been non-mainstream people in that industry. No need to make fun of, really, two different people’s bodies (one of whom didn’t ask for it).

      But regardless, Tomlinson isn’t a model, because he has not modeled professionally. And that idea – that you can just SAY you’re something and have that count – seems to be way too pervasive among these privileged assholes.

  10. The original article says that the coaching staff claim to have seen videos of Caire doing gymnastics. In my mind the easiest way to clear this up is to produce said videos.

    I don’t like this at all, but there’s no evidence of admissions fraud. We don’t know if Caire got in on her own, and I am very hesitant to jump to any sort of conclusion without actually knowing if there was fraud committed here. I will say that certainly Miss Val has some explaining to do, and she had better do it fast fast.

    1. Except the university already said the videos have gone missing. Convenient!

      1. Right, but universities also don’t save the tryout/audition videos of every athlete, music major, dance major, etc., especially once the student has already been enrolled for a couple of years. That would be a lot of footage, and it’s not unusual to discard that within this time frame. I’m sure Maria has some floating around somewhere, if she ever wanted to clear her name.

      2. IMO universities SHOULD save that footage for everyone admitted through the athletic track who is currently enrolled. They should be ready to be audited for their admissions decisions, ESPECIALLY ones that bypass the normal process.

        And at the original poster – how do you not see evidence of admissions fraud?!

      3. There are clear suggestions of shadiness surrounding how Caire got onto the gymnastics team. But we don’t know anything about how she got into the SCHOOL. Spencer notes this above. Walk-on athletes are not always recruited, and it is entirely possible that she did not bypass normal academic admissions at all. Therefore no admissions fraud. Unlikely, based on how this looks, but still very possible.

      4. Not to mention there are no videos of her online doing gymnastics. You can pretty much find YouTube videos of everyone on a major team’s roster these days. Her videos are oddly missing.

    2. Okay yes you’re right that there is no evidence PROVING admissions fraud, but imo there’s enough red flags that UCLA owes it to taxpayers to demonstrate that Caire didn’t get into the school as a fake walk-on.

      1. Innocent until proven guilty. The school should provide us with proof if they don’t want to get their name dragged through even more mud, but they don’t have to. The burden of proof lies on the accuser.

      2. @Ally — They aren’t being tried in court (yet). Thus, while you may want it to be “innocent until proven guilty” — that standard isn’t required in investigations by media or fans.

        UCLA has already admitted wrongdoing in their soccer program in the nationwide scandal. Their softball program got caught scamming the scholarship process in the late 90s (I think, it may have been early 2000s). There’s certainly a lot of smoke regarding UCLA’s athletics program and the fact Val’s husband was an assistant AD doesn’t exactly help these new questions regarding gymnastics.

      3. Plus it’s not just gymnastics. The story of the baseball coach’s daughter inexplicably being recruited to the track team seemed sketchy too. From the outside, it looks like the UCLA coaches generally have a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” dynamic that the university and/or NCAA should probably be looking into.

      4. They can prove fraud when they fail to prove that Caire was ever at that gym she claimed to go to, that is coincidentally owned by the UCLA announcer. There would be witnesses who would have seen her there. Funny how he claimed she worked with one coach who wasn’t there anymore, only to have the LA Times track him down and find out he’d never heard of her. There are also likely emails and text messages between all these players to get their stories straight. Same with Cory and the golf team – he apparently claimed he golfed in high school. Where is the proof of that?

    3. If it were Yoculan or Patterson being accused of this, knives would be out. Per usual, Val is shown with a glowing halo… I actually do not dislike that coach or program but have been exhausted by the double standard the last ten years or so. It was especially glaring as Val continually stood over and argued with coaches yet everyone ignored it because… Miss Val. In the meantime people routinely roasted the Peyton Ernsts and Kati Brazeals who at least had competitive records/top gym affiliations heading into college.

      1. Not to mention Peyton actually contributed routines for two seasons to top teams.

      2. Good God. I can’t even imagine the shitstorm that would develop in the gymternet if Yoculan and Georgia were involved or Utah for that matter. There would have already been 500 comments on this blog had Georgia been involved.

      3. Seriously. I love UCLA’s team but I do not understand this blind spot everyone has for Val Kondos. What, because she has a talent for self-promotion and spouts platitudes about positivity to the press, that makes her a good person?

      4. I was always under the impression that Kati Brazeal got onto the UGA roster as part of Christia Tannale’s recruitment. I remember a blog years ago that basically said Christa wanted Kati to come with her.

        Both gymnasts are from Texas and knew each other so there’s some validity to the blog.

    4. As for innocent until proven guilty, this is not a criminal trial. Miss Val promotes herself as a leader in the sport and cannot avoid scrutiny. We can say they are guilty of lying because we know it’s impossible for someone who has never been a gymnast to learn a vault in a few months that would make the lineup of a top-three team. And Miss Val claims that the owner of the club is the one who first told her about Caire, who happens to be her best friend’s niece. Gimme a break. And the gym owner cannot recall that conversation, gee whiz. Why wouldn’t he remember a conversation in which he called the head coach of the UCLA gymnastics team and suggested a non-gymnast join the gymnastics team? And yes there is evidence of admissions fraud.

  11. Anyone wondering how the L.A. Times got onto this bit of arcane information and whether there might be someone who has a recent grudge against UCLA who pointed them in that direction?

    1. If it were any other metro area I’d wonder that, but LA was ground zero for Operation Varsity Blues. It makes sense to me that, once the OVB story broke, local reporters would keep digging to see what else they could find.

    2. The LA Times has been reporting on USC and UCLA athletics continuously every since the varsity blues scandal broke. It encompassed multiple sports and higher-ups. In my opinion, they should keep investigating and reporting.

      1. That doesn’t seem like bitterness. It would be normal to have emotions after being let go after dedicating years to a program. He likely felt stabbed in the back by those he was previously loyal to. It happens every day in jobs everywhere.

        Insinuating he planted the story or tipped off the Times when the whole varsity blues scandal has been front page news for months is ridiculous at best and slander at worst. It doesn’t take much work for a reporter to pull the rosters of programs and start checking backgrounds on athletes. Caire’s own bio was completely missing on UCLA’s site — that’s a major red flag on its own.

      2. Now that Randy is no longer at UCLA, I bet he would be willing to tell the truth about what happened. Surely he would remember being introduced to the girl who had never trained in gymnastics who was going to learn a Yurchenko 1 1/2, to help them in the vault lineup, right? Ha ha ha

  12. I bet John Wooden is rolling over in his grave. This is not part of his pyramid of success.

    1. Maria Claire was a late recruit though – it’s easy for the team/publication to say the deadline for submission of a bio had passed prior to her being added to the roster. It’s easy to replace one photo on one page. Adding another bio could require a multiple page reshuffle.

      So it’s an easy excuse (if needed) but also a legitimate reason why there’s no bio.

      1. There’s a photo of Kocian from Rio right there in the screencap. Mariah wasn’t add to the roster THAT late.

      2. Plus, many teams update bios during the season as new career highs are achieved or awards are given out. It’s not difficult to add a bio to a website. Her bio was blank on purpose.

  15. Did Maria Caire not write a post on Katelyn Ohashi’s blog about body shaming and gymnastics?

  16. I am conflicted on Miss Val – however, I do question her choice of friends. Kenny Ortega is alleged trash toward his teen stars – yes, he is NOT nice. Just Google “Kenny Ortega Blind Item” and you will know what I am talking about.

  17. Let’s not ignore the Cory/Manager extraordinaire. Getting the golf coach to recruit one’s old boss’s son as a walk-on, so he can get in and you can hire him as team manager – yep nothing here either. Wonder if they’ll include these tidbits in the new movie about her?

    Since Cory was the one stating he thought he would never get in UCLA, and the article about him clearly state’s Val’s influence in making it happen – it is pretty clear that was not a get in, then get recruited as a walk-on, quit the team and then become the manager of another team.

    As for Carey getting in and then becoming a recruited walk-on? Name me 1 gymnast, at one of the schools with restricted admissions that has done that? Could it happen? In theory, yes. However, the quotes from Val indicate that she was recruited…tapes were reviewed… so let’s quit pretending. Could/would she have gotten in? Unless they want to start releasing her application/test scores hard to say, but it is clear that she did get accepted( at least partially ) because Val said she wanted her for the team.

    1. Honestly even if Caire did get in through the normal admissions process, I still question allowing someone with almost zero gymnastics experience to walk on and enjoy the privileges of a student athlete at a D-1 school and then letting them slide into a manager job – jobs that should be open to a competitive application process. It’s not nearly as bad as her getting preferential admissions but it’s still very inappropriate for a coach – especially at a state school – to hand out these perks to the children of your friends.

      There should still be standards. Like being a level 10 gymnast or showing level 10 skills on at least 1 event on video that actually exists.

    2. “Since Cory was the one stating he thought he would never get in UCLA, and the article about him clearly state’s Val’s influence in making it happen – it is pretty clear that was not a get in, then get recruited as a walk-on, quit the team and then become the manager of another team.”

      Yes, to everyone being like “we don’t KNOW Tomlinson and Caire didn’t get accepted through the normal process” – there’s no other reason for why someone would fake being an athlete.
      Unless I suppose the manager jobs are so competitive that it’s your only way to get them, in which case, that is STILL unethical.

      1. The only reason that these coaches would risk their jobs by recruiting a non-athlete and lying about their skill level is to get them admitted to the school, whether it’s for personal reasons or money. It’s clear Caire never even trained with the team.

  19. The best part of this is that any future employer who googles Maria Caire will see the LA Times article as the first result and read all about how she is just a fraud.

  20. Cory Tomlinson is also a closet case who won’t come out because his dad Jerry Tomlinson will disown him.

    1. I think his getting into UCLA by acting like he was a golfer is complete BS and the university absolutely should investigate. His sexuality, however, is 100% his business. Whether he’s gay or straight, out or not, is no one’s business and your comment is despicable.

      2. Agree 100% that his sexuality is his own business. And frankly if it’s true that he has a homophobic father, I feel sorry for him in any event.

  21. Miss Val’s husband was an Assistant AD at UCLA for much of the time she was a coach. She probably could have gotten away with almost anything. They were a power couple at UCLA.

    I’m sure Val will just want everyone to “dance” this scandal away. I will applaud BBS and Gymcastic for talking about it. I know you guys are friendly with Val and know her, so I appreciate you reporting this.

  22. If no money exchanged hands and this is strictly a case of nepotism, UCLA needs to get ahead of it. They could easily come out and say they made a bad decision and they are sorry. Then state Caire is no longer associated with the team and Val has retired. Then end it by saying their recruiting policies are being reviewed and this won’t happen again.

    Instead, their silence is deafening. I suspect they are hoping that the athletics community will forget about it once college football starts up in a month.

    1. @mandini – I was in no way saying UCLA should act like it didn’t happen. I said they are likely keeping quiet and hoping it will blow over. They know sports writers turn to football in August.

      I think UCLA needs to apologize, take action, and review their policies. From an admin standpoint, they could state those involved are gone. The issue, though, is what was Waller’s involvement?

    2. The Wallers were a case of nepotism. Caire and Tomlinson were fraud. They lied about their backgrounds/club association. I doubt there ever was a video shown to the coaches. If Chris Waller went along with it, this is certainly a firable offense.

  23. The only thing that would make this situation okay with me is if Caire applied and was accepted through the regular process, AND if EVERYONE who asked to walk on to the team was accepted regardless of athletic ability and then given the option to take a managerial job once they “decided” they were too stressed out by pretending to be an athlete.

    I’m guessing team rosters would be an awful lot bigger if that were the case. I would have happily struggled through the Woodward conditioning camp if it meant I could get priority enrollment, tutoring, and the opportunity to put “D-1 NCAA athlete” on my resume, and I wasn’t even that motivated of a college student.

    1. If we want a real life example of “not everyone is allowed to walk on”, we could look no further than Rachel Borden at Illinois. She wanted to walk on and was initially told no, your skills aren’t there yet. She joined the team as a manager and kept working on her own and sent videos of her progress and eventually was told yes, and then ended up making the team’s final lineup. But it’s an example of the complete opposite situation, where someone who ended up being ultimately good enough to make the lineup on one event had to really prove herself just to be able to walk on.

    2. Yes I agree with you guys. My post is in response, indirectly I guess, to all the people I have seen here and on Reddit’s gymnastics board* who are arguing that this is either ok or not a big deal because maybe Caire got in academically on her own merits, or because it ‘happens all the time.’

      I don’t think it happens all the time. I don’t think there is any reason at all to believe that Caire or Tomlinson didn’t cheat the system. But even if they DIDN’T get help getting into UCLA, getting an inside track to team manager positions or falsely being on the roster is ALSO wrong. Those are real, tangible advantages that are being denied to deserving people. I’m sure Caire and Tomlinson worked hard in their roles and contributed quite a lot to the team, but it’s still unfair that they were given those opportunities because (and ONLY because) they knew someone. It’s a public university.

      *I know r/Gymnastics isn’t full of people who are knowledgeable about gymnastics, but you don’t have to be able to calculate a D-score to know that the Caire/Tomlinson situation (and probably Dugas too) is fraud.

    3. I think we’re all in agreement in this little section and perhaps just giving further examples. (I’m the anon that gave the Rachel Borden example and perhaps it wasn’t clear that I was agreeing…in fact, thinking of how hard it was for someone like her to walk on to a team, it annoys me even more that someone like Caire got to do it)

  24. How hard is it to carry a clipboard. What do the 13 UCLA Gymnastics team managers do anyway? Carry around rolls of tape?

    1. The unusually large UCLA team with an unusual number of managers has always been suspicious. Like they need 10 people to move mats, 2 to help with hair and makeup, 2 to pump up the crowd, and then several visiting alumni to stand on the sidelines for emotional support.

      But at least they all dance and smile all the time — priorities.

  25. Coming from a country with a very different university system I am sometimes wondering if a US college education could be less costly if there were not all these sports teams and facilities to finance. (But I am aware that sports, team culture etc play a huge role in the US and that most countries have specifics in their educational systems based on history, culture etc)

    1. There are only a few sports that truly make money- football at Power 5 schools and some men’s basketball programs. After that you have one offs like Tennessee womens basketball, UGA-Bama Gymnastics and a couple of one offs. The truth is most athletic departments cost the universities. My alma mater is one of the few that contributes back to the college- but it is by a razor thin margin and we have been exceptional the last 4 years in men’s football (2 NCs, a 2nd and a4th) which brings in the most $ and donations. We also have a smaller athletic department than most schools in terms of teams.

      The reason everyone in the US wants athletics tied to the colleges is that it garners huge publicity and over time the whole ‘scholar athlete plays their way out of poverty’ mantra has taken hold. Even though many sports feature middle or upper middle class kids.

      1. Great meet! Regionals no less! Peng-Peng Lee didn’t compete on her best two events (Bars and Beam), but she did compete Vault and Floor. Maria Caire finished 2nd in the All-Around and outscored the likes of Kyla Ross on Bars, and outscored Katelyn Ohashi and all other competitors on Floor. Historic!

        P.S. The Regionals meet really was on April 1 that year. Sure, these particular scores were posted on March 27 (five days before the meet), and it shows UCLA placed 4th out of 6 teams…but other than that… 😉

  27. About the level 9 (Mia Erdoes) committed to UCLA—She did win Easterns at level 9 in 2018, but that was in the Senior 4 age group. I know ok with when Hunter Dula committed to Utah as a level 9, she was 7 years old, or something. A 16 year old level 9 doesn’t tend to become a star level 10. I’m sure there are exceptions, but I’m more sure that her Mia’s mom’s CEO position at Morgan Chase carried a bit more weight.

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