Olivia Dunne

Olivia Dunne, widely recognized as Livvy, is a famous social media personality and a pro gymnast.

About Olivia Dunne

Introduction

Olivia Dunne, widely recognized as Livvy, is a famous social media personality and a pro gymnast. The 20-year-old gymnast is the highest-valued women’s college athlete. Livvy, who is a current team member of the LSY Tigers women’s gymastics, had also been a part of USA team in 2017. Despite being skilled in every gymnastics event category, uneven bars remains her favorite. Also known as the ‘Golden girl’ of sports, the talented influencer has amassed over 11 million followers on her social media as of 2023. At present, Dunne is the most followed student-athlete-influencer on social media.

Early life, education and family background

Olivia Dunne was born in October 2002 to Katherine and David Dunne in Westwood, New Jersey. She was  raised in Hillsdale with her elder sister Julianna, who is a softball pro. Dunne’s parents, who got married in 2000, are their daughters’ ardent supporters. In 2005, at the age tender age of 3, Dunne began training for gymnastics. At 5, she made an attempt to get into gymnastics pre-team ENA in Paramus. That was the beginning of her competitive gymnastics. 

Eventually, Dunne won the level 4 State Championships, thereafter, breaking the state record for all-around event. The multifaceted, bright girl was then promoted to level 8 from level 5 within a year. When she was 9, she competed at level 9 and got selected in the regional championships. The next year, Dunne made it to level 10 and won the silver in a US Challenge qualifying event. When she turned 14, she received training under coach Jay Clark and Craig Zappa. Since Dunne was home-schooled by her mother, she never got to attend regular public high school. Dunne, however, managed a spot in the high school gymnastics team at Pascack Valley High School with her sister. At present, Dunne goes to the Louisiana State University.

While Dunne’s mother Katherine graduated from Rutgers University, her father took up engineering at the same college. Katherine seems to be active on all social media platforms, promoting her daughters and celebrating their life journeys and achievements. Dunne’s father, David, who is a corporate attorney, represents 500 fortune companies and has certifications and licenses from the  NJ Bar of New Jersey and New York and the US District Court. Currently, he is self employed.

Gymnastic Career

NCAA’s highest-earning female athlete and social media sensation Dunne, made her debut at the 2014 American Classic as a junior. In 2017, she became a member of the U.S. junior national team. The self-made gymnast made her debut in NCAA against Arkansas while she was In her senior year. Her career in sports, so far, has been extremely successful with numerous placements in state-level competitions.

Junior

2014–15

Dunne's elite debut was at the 2014 American Classic and she finished 28th in the all-around. Her next competition was the U.S. Classic, where she placed 12th in the all-around. In 2015, Dunne re-qualified for elite status at the WOGA Classic, earned a qualifying score 52.750, and placed fifth. Dunne then competed at the American Classic and finished eighth. Her performance at the American Classic qualified her to compete at the 2015 National Championships. Before the National Championships, Dunne competed at the U.S. Classic again and placed 24th in the all-around. Dunne finally made her National Championships debut in 2015 and placed 25th in the all-around.

2016-2017

Dunne participated in the 2016 American Classic and finished 27th. She then competed at the 2016 U.S. Classic and finished 24th. Dunne concluded the season by competing at the 2016 National Championships and finished

12th

Additionally, she achieved eighth place on the balance beam and sixth place on the floor exercise. In March, Dunne was chosen to represent the team at the 2017 City of Jesolo Trophy. This selection marked her first time being added to the National Team. She made her international debut at the City of Jesolo Trophy and secured sixth place in the all-around. Dunne participated in the 2017 U.S. Classic in July and had a fifth-place finish. Finally, at the 2017 National Championships, Dunne finished ninth in the all-around

Senior

2018-2020

In 2018, Dunne moved up to the senior level in gymnastics. Despite the United States not sending a team, Dunne competed on behalf of her club at the 2018 City of Jesolo Trophy, where she achieved a 15th-place finish. Due to an ankle injury, Dunne could only participate in the uneven bars event at the 2018 U.S. Classic. However, she managed to qualify for the National Championships through a special request and ended up in 18th place overall. Dunne decided not to compete during the 2019 season to give her injuries enough time to heal. In November of that same year, Dunne signed an official commitment letter with Louisiana State University, where she would compete starting in the 2020-21 season. After transitioning to Level 10, Dunne successfully qualified for the 2020 Nastia Liukin Cup and finished in 11th place in the competition

NCAA

2020-2021

Throughout the regular season, Dunne competed exclusively on the uneven bars. She made her NCAA debut in a meet against Arkansas, earning a score of 9.875. As the postseason approached, Dunne had an NQS (National Qualifying Score) of 9.9 on bars. At the SEC Championships, she played a crucial role in LSU's second-place team finish by contributing a score of 9.9 on the uneven bars. Moving on to the NCAA Championships semi-finals, Dunne once again achieved a score of 9.9 on bars. Unfortunately, LSU did not advance to the finals of the NCAA Championships.

2021-2022

Throughout the regular season, Dunne competed in the uneven bars event in every meet. Additionally, she participated in the floor exercise in five meets. During the opening meets against Centenary, Dunne achieved her personal best score of 9.925 on the uneven bars. In her first college competition on January 28, Dunne earned a score of 9.800 on the floor exercise. At the SEC Championships, Dunne contributed a score of 9.875 on the uneven bars. However, the team faced a setback as they had to count a fall in that event, resulting in a fifth-place finish overall. During the NCAA regional semifinals, Dunne performed well with a score of 9.85 on the uneven bars and 9.9 on the floor exercise. Despite Dunne's strong performances, LSU encountered unexpected difficulties on the balance beam with two falls. As a consequence, the team was eliminated from the post-season in the first round of regionals, marking the first time since 2011 that they did not qualify for the national championship as a team.

2022-2023

Dunne faced several injuries, including two torn labrums, a torn bicep, and a stress reaction in her leg, which caused her to miss a significant portion of the season. On February 24, Dunne returned to competition and made her season debut against Alabama. During the meet, she competed on the uneven bars and received a score of 9.825.

Net worth 2023

Olivia Dunne has a reported net worth of $3.3 Million. Dunne earns most of her money through social media, gymnast career, and multiple brand deals. TikTok star’s massive following has helped her bag many well-paying endorsement deals for her name, image, and likeness (NIL).

NIL Empire

With her devoted following, Dunne has been able to land some lucrative name, image, and likeness deals, thereby gaining notoriety as a female athlete. At such a young age, Dunne has successfully turned her gymnastics stardom into a $3.4 million NIL empire. She currently ranks third on the NIL 100 list. This not only made her the highest-earning collegiate gymnast in history, but also contributed to surpassing Auburn's Lee by $2.1 million worth.

Brand endorsements and Sports deals

As a college student in 2023, Dunne is “very grateful” to be making seven figures. In October 2022, TikTok star topped the On3 Sports list of female NIL moneymakers. Going by the reports, Dunne made nearly $2 million from brand deals in 2022 alone.

In 2021, Dunne first signed a deal with WME Sports for representation. She has now sealed profitable deals with many big brands, including Leaf Trading Cards, sports broadcaster ESPN, Body Armour, Linktree, Forever 21, American Eagle Outfitters, College GameDay. Dunne’s other long-term clients are PlantFuel, a protein and supplements company and Bartleby, a growing study app. Her one-off deals include TooFaced cosmetics, GrubHub, Madden/EA Sports, and the Nate app. She is also working in partnership with activewear line Vuori and her latest portfolio addition is Caktus AI.

How much does she earn on average through her brand deals remain unknown.

Social Media Presence

Dunne joined TikTok in 2020 and gained popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, while quarantining in Florida, she used to create content at the beach doing flips, which she dubbed "beach-nastics”. She began by posting just gymnastics video on the platform, but later started to experiment and showcase her creativity in other areas. The young influencer has amassed over 11 million followers on her social media as of 2023. The NIL star currently has 7.5 million followers on TikTok, 4.2 million on Instagram and around 101K followers on Twitter. She first rose to fame on TikTok, probably why her Instagram still has half the number of followers, compared to the video-sharing app. Reportedly. Dunne’s posts garner somewhere between 400,000 and 1 million likes and several thousand comments, which has played a huge role in fetching her great brand deals.

Hobbies

As per reports, Dunne’s interest lies in fashion designing. On her website, she has often expressed her love for designing. It won’t be wrong to say that Livvy is creative both on and off field. She even helps her coach with original sketches, fabric selections and designing costumes. She apparently “love to see” her ideas turn into reality.

Awards And Achievements: Gymnastic career

In 2014 - Secret U.S. Classic, Chicago, Ill. - (Jr. Div.)

In 2015 - P&G Championships, Indianapolis, Ind. - (Jr. Div.), Secret U.S. Classic, Chicago, Ill. - (Jr. Div.), and American Classic, Huntsville, TX - 8th-AA, 6th Floor

In 2016 - P&G Championships, St. Louis, Mo. - 6th-FX; 8th-BB (Jr. Div.) and Secret U.S. Classic, Hartford, Conn. - (Jr. Div.)

In 2017 - P&G Championships, Anaheim, Calif. - 7th-BB; 8th-FX(T); 9th-AA (Jr. Div.) and U.S. Classic, Chicago, Ill. - 5th-AA(T); 6th-BB, FX (Jr. Div.)

In 2018 - U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Boston, Mass. and GK U.S. Classic, Columbus, Ohio

In 2020 - Nastia Liukin Cup, Milwaukee, Wis.

Olivia Dunne’s dating life and ex boyfriends

As of 2023, one of the most desired female celebrities Dunne, is reportedly not dating anyone. However, in the past, she is believed to have been in a relationship with a successful fellow TikTok star Josh Richards. It’s obvious for fans to be curious about influencers they closely follow, and so, they began wondering if the duo was dating after Richards posted a video with Dunne on his YouTube channel. 

Dunne was also previously linked to a Canadian, Theo Millas, who is a baseball pitcher and college student at LSU with her. Recently, Dunne was rumored to have a crush on  former LSU Quarterback Joe Burrow, however, he is still with his longtime girlfriend Olivia Holzmacher. Other men the TikTok star has been speculated of dating are NASCAR driver Chase Elliott, singer Morgan Wallen, Texas Longhorns freshman quarterback Arch Manning, and NFL player Tom Brady.

Controversies

The infamous fan fiasco

In January 2023, Dunne, who is a junior on a four-year athletic scholarship at LSU, was criticized for the kind of content she posts on her social media accounts. She was targeted for her dance videos, gymnastics and bikini photos. This came after a fan fiasco happened at the Tigers’ season opener against Utah in Salt Lake City. A massive crowd of Dunne’s male followers showed up at the game, started screaming and asking for her whereabouts. Some of the teenage boys were holding placards asking the gymnast for photos and requesting follows on social media. It didn’t stop there, Dunne’s fans didn’t even spare other athletes and went on to harass them.

Dunne dubbed the incident “concerning and insane”. After that, Dunne was also blamed for failing to control her fans. The famed TikTok star, however, shot down critics blaming her social media content for the chaos, saying “As a woman, you are not responsible for how a man looks at you and objectifies you. That’s not a woman’s responsibility.” Dunne took to Twitter to address the issue and to convey her displeasure with fans who exhibited inappropriate behavior. Her tweet was well received by her followers and many of her fans even apologized for the misconduct. To prevent any such incidents from happening in the future, the LSU tightened security and issued new rules to keep the athletes safe.