Swimsuit

Olivia Dunne Has Strong, Supportive Message For ‘GOAT’ Simone Biles Ahead of Paris Olympics

The NCAA star athlete shared the sweetest words for her fellow gymnast and SI Swimsuit model.

Ananya Panchal

Olivia Dunne and Simone Biles
Olivia Dunne and Simone Biles / C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images and Aric Becker/Getty Images

NCAA star athlete Olivia Dunne is so excited to watch Simone Biles at the Paris Olympics this year. The content creator and college athlete, who just announced her return for a fifth and final competition season with the LSU Tigers, spoke with Sports Illustrated on the red carpet at the ESPY Awards last week.

The two-time SI Swimsuit model, who was photographed in Puerto Rico for her debut and Portugal for her rookie feature, had the sweetest words for Biles, the most-decorated gymnast in history.

“Simone has always been a GOAT and I think that this is like her revenge tour. What happened in 2020 was a freak thing and [now] she’s going to probably win,” Dunne said, referring to when Biles withdrew from the Tokyo games four years ago. The 27-year-old, who posed for the 2017 and ’19 SI Swimsuit Issues, made the decision not to compete in both the individual and team events in the 2020 Olympics after suffering the “twisties.”

Biles, who is a 37-time world championship winner and Olympic medalist with nine all-around titles, is headed Paris with Team USA for the summer games at the end of the month.

Dunne, 21, served a short stint on the U.S. national team when she was 14. It was the “biggest honor” while also being the hardest year of her life. The New Jersey native took a step back, accepting a full-ride scholarship to LSU and choosing to pursue gymnastic at the NCAA level instead, while also completing her education and getting a university experience.

“Elite gymnastics [was] definitely a sacrifice. My childhood was full of gymnastics. The atmosphere in the gym was very intense. Our collective goal was just to make the Olympics. That was my dream growing up,” she said. “Stepping away from elite gymnastics was very difficult. I just decided why not be healthy, go to school and enjoy college and gymnastics.”

Today, the social media star is the highest-paid female college athlete in the country, and she’s inspiring other women in sports to take advantage of NIL rules to gain financial independence.

“I feel like in a way I kind of introduced a whole new audience to college gymnastics, which is honestly kind of like a main goal of mine and it’s happening, so I just think that’s really awesome because the sport really deserves recognition and a positive spotlight,” Dunne shared. “I feel like [my target audience connects with my content] because I do relatable, normal things. I am a college student, people do college sports, so in a way I feel like that’s an attainable thing, that I’m not just TikToker or a social media influencer. It’s a way to show that you can do whatever you want with social media and if you do sports, it’s possible to do it all.”

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Ananya Panchal
ANANYA PANCHAL

Ananya Panchal is a writer on the Lifestyle and Trending News team for SI Swimsuit. Before joining SI Swimsuit in 2022, she worked at Bustle, the San Francisco Chronicle and the TODAY Show. When she is not writing or doom-scrolling on social media, Panchal can be found playing sudoku, rewatching One Tree Hill or trying new restaurants. She's also a coffee and chocolate (separately) enthusiast. Panchal has a bachelor’s in communications and journalism from Boston University.

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