Gymnast turned TikTok superstar: Olivia Dunne’s rise to the top

Social media personality and American artistic gymnast Olivia Dunne is the most famous American college athlete in the world right now.

With millions of followers on social media and competing internationally for Team USA, let's look back at her meteoric rise to stardom.

Born on 1 October 2002, Dunne was born in Westwood, New Jersey, and raised in Hillsdale, New Jersey.

The social media superstar specializes in uneven bars and started her gymnastic journey at the early age of three in 2005.

Dunne made her elite gymnastics debut at the 2014 American Classic where her best-placed finish was 16^th on the balance beam, in her opening event.

Her best finish in three years as a junior came in the all-around event, where she placed fifth in the 2015 WOGA Classic and fifth again in the 2017 US Classic.

In March 2017, the gymnast was selected to compete at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Italy to represent the USA for the first time in her career.

In her first international competition, representing the USA, Dunne finished sixth overall in the all-around event.

Dunne's senior years were plagued with injury, resulting in her missing the whole 2019 season to recover. At the end of 2019, the gymnast officially signed her National Letter of Intent with Louisiana State University to start in the 2020/21 season.

Picture – Instagram @livvydunne

Since competing at the NCAA level, Dunne has only competed on the uneven bars for LSU, making her debut in a meet against Arkansas.

The college gymnast has competed at three championships since arriving at LSU, having her best finish at SEC Championships where she placed fifth individually and came second as a team.

Despite her incredible gymnastics career so far, it's actually been Dunne's social media exploits that have propelled her into household name territory.

As of January 2023, Dunne has amassed over ten million followers across her TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, with the majority coming from TikTok (6.9 million), which she set up in 2020.

On the first of July 2021, the NCAA changed its rule to allow their athletes to earn more money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL).

Dunne signed with WME sports, becoming their first NIL athlete. According to nypost.com, NIL experts have said the gymnast has turned her large following into millions of dollars.

Picture – Instagram @livvydunne

According to nypost.com, Dunne said, "It's really amazing to be at the forefront of the start of this new NIL rule change," she expressed, "I want to be a role model to young girls".