Olivia Dunne Candidly Shares How Gymnastics Impacted Her Body Image

The LSU athlete wants girls to know that it’s ‘normal’ to struggle with confidence.

Olivia Dunne / LSU Athletics/Getty Images

Olivia Dunne has been a gymnast for pretty much as long as can remember. She picked up the sport at the age of 3—and hasn’t looked back since.

The nearly lifelong venture has featured several impressive accomplishments: a college recruitment process, a subsequent verbal commitment to LSU at just 14, and (most recently) a national championship title during her senior season in Baton Rouge. It has given her so much—to the extent that she couldn’t imagine foregoing her fifth year of eligibility. “To leave one more year of eligibility on the table?” she said in a recent interview with Flaunt magazine. “That felt wrong to me.”

So she has returned to Louisiana for one more year at LSU. And while the college experience thus far has been extremely rewarding (both where gymnastics and her NIL success are concerned), Dunne does not overlook the costs that have come with the sport. She has spent much of her life in one gym or another, and it hasn’t always been easy.

Olivia Dunne / LSU Athletics/Getty Images

“You have to have tough skin to do gymnastics or any artistic sport,” she explained to Flaunt. “I actually looked at a statistic, and it said anorexia and body image issues are the highest in artistic sports. That is terrible, but I understand it.”

But it’s not just a statistic for Dunne, it was a real-life experience, too. “Growing up in elite gymnastics, it was very hard with body image,” she remarked. “Being a young girl going through puberty, it’s hard to be in a leotard. The whole sport of gymnastics is having people judge you, and I just think that’s something not a lot of people talk about. Yes, I’m confident in myself, but it’s something I still struggle with to this day. I want girls to know that it’s normal. That’s normal.”

Given her online presence, and her willingness to share much of her personal life with her following, Dunne’s personal struggles might come as a surprise to some. But that only reinforces her point that dips in confidence are “normal.” Everyone experiences them from time to time—even those who you would least expect to struggle.

In January, Dunne will begin her last season at LSU. With a 2024 national championship title to defend, the athlete is undoubtedly ready to lock in. After all, the “5th times the charm,” as she wrote in an Instagram post featuring a handful of her final media day photos.