Olivia Dunne Breaks Down Hardships of Gymnast Life in Sparkly Purple Leotard Ahead of Tigers Season

The LSU athlete and SI Swimsuit model is getting candid in her latest TikTok.

Olivia Dunne was photographed by Ben Watts in Portugal. / Ben Watts/Sports Illustrated

Olivia Dunne is just a couple of weeks away from beginning her final competition season with reigning NCAA women’s gymnastics champions, the Tigers. And, as a result the fifth-year LSU star athlete has been reflecting on her incredible journey over the past several years at the univerity and with being an elite gymnast, and all that it has brought her, on and off the gym floor.

She’s also getting candid about how difficult it is to be a public figure and women in sports. The SI Swimsuit model, who made her debut in Puerto Rico last year, and reunited with photographer Ben Watts in Portugal for her rookie feature in 2024, took to TikTok, where she is a prominent content creator and has amassed a following of 8.1 million and counting.

Olivia Dunne / LSU Athletics/Getty Images

The 22-year-old attached a series of important reminders about what she experiences on the daily, alongside a powerful image of her in the signature sparkly purple LSU leotard.

“When someone jokes about gymnastics, but they have never been made fun of for being too muscular,” the first slide read.

She continued the same format, writing “When someone jokes about gymnastics but they have never had to get over a mental block.”

Olivia Dunne / Chris Parent/Getty Images

Dunne continued on mentioning “beam bites,” being homeschooled 8 hours a day in order to make time for training, having to watch her body change from a girl to a woman while wearing a leotard every day, having a coach sit on her shoulders while doing “oversplits” and going to the “Karolyi Ranch.”

“I still love it tho :) #gymnastics #gymnast #sports #ncaa #studentathlete #gymtok,” the New Jersey native captioned the video.

Watch the TikTok here.

Dunne has had an incredible past few years as an athlete and is at the forefront of the NIL movement. The social media sensation, who is an ambassador for Vuori, Nautica, Accelerator Active Energy drinks and more companies, launched her Livvy Fund earlier this year, with the hope of connecting more young women in sports with financial brand-sponsored opportunities.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Olivia Dunne (@livvydunne)

“The worst part is that people think gymnastics is easy when it’s not. The job is to make it look beautiful and easy. You’re not doing it right if it looks hard ... The social media aspect of it—I worked really hard to get to where I am in building my personal brand, and it didn’t happen in the blink of an eye,” she explained in a Flaunt cover story earlier this year. “It didn’t happen in just a year. It didn’t happen because of one viral moment. It happened over years of getting to know my audience, learning the algorithms and growing my brand to be what it is today. That’s why people are so fascinated with what I’m doing.”