Maile O’Keefe and Theresa Kulikowski: The record holder and the record breaker

Theresa Kulikowski has never met Maile O’Keefe.

Outside of a few congratulatory messages on Facebook, the pair have never really communicated.

One competed in NCAA gymnastics in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while the other is nearing the end of her final season competing collegiately at Utah.

O’Keefe was barely a toddler when Kulikowski’s storied career at the University of Utah came to an end.

Yet they are inexorably tied to one another. Because of perfection.

The history makers

For almost 20 years, Kulikowski, now Kulikowski-Gillespie, was the record holder for Utah gymnastics. The standard of greatness for a program defined by greatness.

During the course of her collegiate career at Utah from 1999 to 2003, Kulikowski set program records for the most perfect routines on two events — balance beam and uneven bars — in both cases shattering marks that were set a decade earlier by Red Rocks legends Missy Marlowe and Kristen Kenoyer.

It all added up to Kulio — as she was affectionally known — becoming the most perfect gymnast in Utah history, with a program-record 14 perfect 10s in her career.

Cracks in her hold on the record books started to show in the early 2010s, when Georgia Dabritz made a run at the Utah record for perfect 10s on bars, ultimately tying Kulikowski’s mark for the most in a career with seven. But it wasn’t until O’Keefe showed up at Utah in 2020 that Kulikowski’s hold on perfection at Utah was truly in danger.

As a freshman, O’Keefe made it known to now-Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf that she wanted to break Kulikowski’s record for perfection on beam, O’Keefe’s signature event.

And though it took some time — O’Keefe didn’t earn a perfect 10 her freshman season — that goal eventually became reality.

In 2022, her junior year, O’Keefe became Utah’s record holder for most perfect 10s in a single season with three, besting the mark of two set by Kulikowski, among others.

The following season, O’Keefe accomplished her stated goal of becoming the most perfect Red Rock on beam, ever, breaking Kulikowski’s career record of six.

That same year, at the 2023 NCAA championships, O’Keefe became the NCAA all-around champion, the first Red Rock to do so since Kulikowski.

It all set the stage for O’Keefe to make a run at Kulikowski’s final record, the most perfect 10s overall ever by a Utah gymnast, in her fifth and final season as a Red Rock.

And last Saturday night, at the final Pac-12 championships, O’Keefe finally pulled it off, her record-breaking routine coming in the middle of a championship-winning meet for Utah.

“She has been wanting that last 10 for weeks now,” Dockendorf said after the competition, Utah’s fourth straight Pac-12 title. “We talked this week that maybe the expectation was too high for her. Just that she was putting so much pressure on herself to get a 10 every single meet. I told her last Friday night, after the (Stanford/Utah State) meet, I said, ‘You are going to get a 10 when it counts the most.’ She did that tonight. It was a really special moment and she is capable of a 10 every single time.”

All told, O’Keefe now has 14 perfect 10s on beam in her career, with six coming in a single season. And she now holds the Utah record for 15 perfect 10s in a career.

A difference of eras

After breaking Kulikowski’s record, O’Keefe freely admitted that she was affected by her race for history. After starting the season strong when it comes to perfect routines — she had four in basically the first month — O’Keefe had been stuck on 14 10s for nearly two months.

And it, her chance to break the program record, was in her head.

“I had a little hitch,” she said. “... I wouldn’t say (there was) pressure (to break the record) but there has been that talk of ‘Oh, she’s tied. She’s tied with Theresa.’ I feel like I needed to turn into business mode because I had been thinking about that way too much. I was just glad (to break the record). It was stressful.”

O’Keefe isn’t new to undue pressure and expectations, either.

Before even coming to Utah, she felt the weight of expectation as a highly touted prospect with a national championship to her name.

“There was a lot of articles being written before I came saying I was going to be the best freshman in my class,” O’Keefe said. “Expectations were already building before I got here.”

Once she started getting perfect scores, those expectations only rose and with them came notoriety. O’Keefe’s routines were soon parsed over again and again, with detractors calling for deductions that judges may have missed.

Even her most recent 10, the record-breaking one, was a source of heated debate. Utah supporters went to such lengths as to find video evidence to confirm the perfect score, while non-Utah fans highlighted mistakes that they saw.

It has been impossible for O’Keefe to block out outside noise. And though she has been primarily self-motivated in her run at history, she noted that about a quarter of her motivation during her collegiate career has come about due to the expectations of “coaches, teammates, media, fans and such.”

Such is competing collegiately at Utah in this day and age.

All of that was completely unknown to Kulikowski, though.

In fact, she didn’t know she held the program record on beam until O’Keefe broke it.

“I didn’t know. At the time I didn’t know,” she said. “... It is just so different these days, because everything is in their face. Back then, maybe there was a newspaper article, maybe there was something about it, but I didn’t know.”

While Kulikowski did learn that she had set the program record for perfect 10s when her Utah career came to a close, she had no idea what she was doing while she was competing.

She believes that was to her benefit.

“I think that was actually a good thing for me,” she said. “If those records and those stats were in my face day in and day out, it would be really hard to focus. ... I never went up (to compete) thinking about a record. It was never even a thought in my mind. I would do my pre-routine ritual and I would get up and do my routine. And if I got a 10, it was like, ‘That is so cool.’ It was exciting, but it was never in my mind that I’m at 13 or now I’m at 14 and I hold the record. It is just funny. I am over 20 years removed from competing (at Utah) and it is so much more in the forefront of my mind more than it ever was when I was competing.”

The pressures of perfection

While Kulikowski wasn’t aware while she was competing that she was making history, she nonetheless had to deal with the pressures of competing at such a high level for one of the sports most notable programs.

It was an experience that, when she reflects on it 20-plus years later, was nothing short of extraordinary. In deed and difficulty.

“I think when I was in the thick of it, which I think is the case for a lot of athletes, when you are in it you aren’t really aware of the impact that you are having or you aren’t really aware of how hard and incredible it is,” Kulikowski said. “And now that I am 20 years removed and I have this perspective, I just have a much deeper appreciation for what I was able to do.

“And a lot of appreciation for the team experience, getting to compete in college gymnastics and connect with really dear friends throughout the whole process. I have a very different perspective now and I think a much deeper appreciation now that I am 44. Last year I realized I had now not done gymnastics longer than I did it. And that is an interesting feeling because gymnastics was my whole life. It was my identity. And it is still a part of me. When I watch gymnastics now I do get longings and I do feel like, nostalgia of competition and wondering what would it be like to be doing it now, with social media, with all of the attention.”

Kulikowski’s experience with college gymnastics wasn’t all sunshine and roses, though. She has been and remains open about the challenges she went through while at Utah.

“I struggled. And I share these stories pretty openly now,” she said. “I fell victim to disordered eating. I feel victim to depression. I struggled at times throughout collegiate gymnastics.”

Kulikowski relied upon no shortage of resources to deal with her struggles, including “therapists and psychologists, my friends and my family.” She also relied on visualization, journaling and occasionally turned to coaches Greg and Megan Marsden for support.

“I needed a lot of tools and a lot of support to navigate it,” she said. “I did struggle during that time.”

O’Keefe hasn’t had the easiest career either, despite her many successes. Her freshman year was cut short due to the pandemic, her sophomore season was competed without fans in the stands, she lost a friend (Aaron Lowe) to a tragic death, and she and Utah gymnastics had to deal with abuse allegations levied against former Utah head coach Tom Farden and what followed during the summer and fall before the current gymnastics season. All while competing with the pressures of Utah gymnastics on her back.

“The amount of stuff that these women went through isn’t normal,” Dockendorf said following Utah’s Senior Night meet against Stanford and Utah State, referencing O’Keefe and fellow fifth year seniors Abby Paulson and Jaedyn Rucker specifically.

“They’ve been thrown so many challenges,” she said. “And sometimes it feels like once you get over this mountain the grass will be greener and the truth is that once you get over this mountain there is another mountain. And another mountain. And you keep climbing and learning and that is what they’ve been doing, climbing steeper mountain every time. Acquire more skills about how to handle certain situations.”

O’Keefe has utilized a sports psychologist while at Utah and she believes the way in which she has changed the most during her time as a Red Rock — change that must be tied to her record-breaking career — is how she has handled the pressures that have come her way.

“I think one thing that I’ve really grown into is that expectations have as much impact on you as you allow them too,” O’Keefe said. “I feel like you need to make sure you are doing it for the right reasons, for yourself, your teammates and the legacy of the program. Making sure that you are happy because that is usually when you perform your best.”

Defining the records

Kulikowski readily admits that she doesn’t know if she could have handled the scrutiny that O’Keefe has had to deal with during her race for perfection at Utah.

“We never had to focus on records. It was never in our face,” she said. “And now this is in Maile’s face day in and day out. Kudos to her because that is a lot of pressure.”

And if the two were to ever meet in person, Kulikowski expects that she would congratulate O’Keefe on her historic career and maybe get a picture to commemorate the meeting.

“It is an enormous accomplishment,” she said. “I felt honored to hold that record for as long as I did and it is kind of like passing the torch. I’d give her a big hug and we’d probably get a picture.”

Kulikowski is aware that O’Keefe’s latest and greatest record came in five years of competition, while her own records came about in four years. To be clear, Kulikowski doesn’t hold that against O’Keefe in any way.

“I don’t think sport is always fair, necessarily,” she said.

O’Keefe, for her part, said she wanted to break Kulikowski’s beam record in four years — which she did — in order to prevent questions regarding the validity of her records.

“That way people couldn’t be like, ‘Oh she needed a fifth year to do it,’” O’Keefe said.

Kulikowski thinks that maybe an asterisk is in order for the career perfect 10 record, just a note that says that she only competed four years, compared to O’Keefe’s five.

“In baseball, they put an asterisk when people played more games and were smashing records,” she said. “There was the asterisk, there were more games played. Maybe they do that for these five year records. I imagine all of us who hold them from four years have that passing thought.”

Mostly, though, she just doesn’t want O’Keefe to “smash” her marks, though it can be argued that O’Keefe has already done that on beam with 14 career perfect 10s compared to six for Kulikowski.

“It is kind of a bittersweet feeling,” Kulikowski said. “It is very cool to be able to hold a record. It wasn’t even in my mind as a gymnast. It is so much more in my awareness now.”

“... I hear some of the commentators sometimes say, ‘Maybe she (O’Keefe) will just destroy it’ and I go, ‘Hey!’ There is a little bit of that feels threatening to me. It was my record, please don’t smash it,” she added with a laugh.

A duo to remember

At this point, O’Keefe and Kulikowski will go down as two of the greatest gymnasts to ever compete for the University of Utah. Their names are littered across the record books, time and again, alongside the likes of Marlowe, Dabritz, Kenoyer and Ashley Postell.

And in the future there will certainly be other gymnasts who join them, maybe even beating the marks now set by O’Keefe. She tends to think it will happen whether it takes 10, 20 or even 40 years.

For now, though, the duo are inextricably connected, one former record holder and the current record holder. One former Red Rock great to a current one.

The elite of elite of Utah gymnastics.