Olivia Dunne Started Gymnastics When She Was Just 3 Years Old
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
Olivia "Livvy" Dunne has added a national championship to her list of achievements. The 21-year-old gymnast and her LSU Tigers just won the team’s first NCAA title in school history.
Though Livvy did not compete in the finals, she celebrated the feat alongside her team.
"Forever LSU," she wrote on IG, paired with a video of the Tigers holding their massive trophy. "#champions #ncaa #lsu #gymnastics."
The news raises questions about whether or not Livvy will take advantage of her fifth year of eligibility, which was granted to her after her first season was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of course, Livvy has a lot going on in life, including a busy college career and massive following on TikTok, where she has a jaw-dropping 8 million followers. But how did Livvy become so famous in the first place? Here’s a look back on her gymnastics career.
Livvy started gymnastics at just three years old.
Livvy has been doing gymnastics for nearly two decades. In fact, she started the sport when she was just 3 years old, writing on her website she just “wanted a sparkly pink leotard.” (Fair.) “But little did I know what an exciting future was ahead of me,” she continued.
When Livvy was five, she was invited to try out for the pre-team at her gym, ENA in Paramus, New Jersey. “Once I started competing, I knew I had a passion for the sport,” she said.
She got a full scholarship to LSU in 2017 and began attending the school in 2020.
Livvy’s passion for the sport took her far early in her career. “In the spring of 2017, I accepted a full athletic scholarship to LSU for the year 2020,” she wrote on her website (meaning she was recruited a full three years before she was ready to go to college).
It's no surprise that Livvy was spotted by colleges so early, though, considering her early successes. On the national level, she won medals at the 2016 P&G National Championships. During that same year, she also came in first place on the floor for Bresteyn’s Elite Qualifier in Las Vegas, and came in first in beam during the KPAC Elite Qualifier, per her website.
Livvy competed (and won gold) as part of the USA National Team.
In 2017, Livvy attended the National Team Camps at the USA Olympic Training Center in Texas, and in March, she was selected to represent the U.S. in Italy at the Jesolo Trophy competition. “It was such an honor to be added to the USA National Team,” Livvy wrote on her website. “Our USA junior team won the gold All Around medal! It was very exciting.”
"USA gold❤️🥇" she wrote on IG at the time. "#usa #gold #represent."
She helped support the LSU Tigers to their first national championship in 2024.
Throughout her career at LSU, Livvy earned a career high score of 9.925 on the bars and 9.90 on the floor, per her LSU Tigers profile. She was named as a WCGA All-American in 2021, and made the SEC Honor Roll three times.
During the 2023-24 season, Livvy helped the Tigers earn an SEC championship title on the road to nationals and scored a 9.8 on the uneven bars, according to NorthJersey.com. However, she was benched during the 2024 championship, which only allows six women to compete in the team event.
She doesn't intend on competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics, either. Back in 2021, Livvy revealed that her Olympics dream "died" due to an injury.
"I got hurt when I was about, I think, 15 or 16 years old," she told Barstool podcasters, per Sportskeeda."My bone had died in my ankle and it fractured, so I kind of realized that maybe this is not for me anymore and maybe I should just go to college and be healthy and happy."
Livvy has a fifth year of eligibility.
While Livvy is technically a senior, she has another year of eligibility left, thanks to a NCAA rule that gives athletes who participated in the 2020-2021 season another year of competition (due to the COVID-19 pandemic). But Livvy has said that she's unsure if she'll return to LSU.
Winning the national title "definitely makes me want to come back, but I haven't quite thought about it completely," she told Today in April. "I've just been focused on the now and winning this national title, so I'll definitely start thinking about it," she added.
She has some major NIL deals.
Livvy is doing OK for herself off the floor (and mat, bars, and beam). She’s ranked No.3 athlete in the country for name, image, and likeness (NIL) earnings and is the top-ranked female, according to On3. She has a value of $3.7 million, thanks to deals with big names like Nautica, Vuori, and Motorola.
Livvy even once made $500,000 from a single sponsored post, she said on a 2023 episode of the Full Send podcast. But she values partnerships that have longevity, she says.
"What I love with certain brands is getting long-term brand deals," she said on the podcast. "Those are probably the best because you build a relationship with the brand and they want you year after year."
Congrats, Livvy!
You Might Also Like
