Olivia Dunne on How She Feels Defying People’s Expectations: ‘I Love It’

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

It’s difficult to scroll through TikTok and not come across Olivia Dunne. The peppy 20-year-old, who is a member of the LSU gymnastics team, has spent the past few years building an empire as a college athlete and influencer.

Dunne has been charting her success as an athlete ever since she began gymnastics at age 3. She finished eighth in the all-around at the 2015 American Classic and joined the U.S. national team roster two years later. The New Jersey native joined the Tigers for the ’20–21 season.

Dunne has taken full advantage of the NCAA’s name, image and likeness (NIL) policy allowing college athletes to pursue monetized opportunities. She’s nailed down lucrative brand partnerships with companies like Vuori and American Eagle, and is the highest-paid female college athlete in sports today.

Despite having a smart business mind and a desire to help future female college athletes through an NIL collective specifically for women’s sports, Dunne is often faced with sexist critiques and negativity from naysayers. As for how she feels about defying expectations with her continued success? “I love it,” Dunne says simply.

She also has an important message for those who think she doesn’t deserve her hard-earned achievements.

“People need to understand that I work for everything I earn,” Dunne says. “I’ve spent years building an audience of over 11 million followers between Instagram and TikTok, and brands pay for the reach that my accounts get and the demographic that it caters to.”

While years of training and hard work have gotten Dunne to where she is as a gymnast, her social media following didn’t begin to take off until the COVID-19 pandemic. It was then that her lifestyle and gymnastics content began to go viral. Today, her photos and videos regularly rack up millions of views.

Dunne, who was homeschooled from seventh grade until she went to college, says she’s successful on social media because she understands what her target audience is interested in.

“When I make content, I love to think about who might be watching it and what they’d like,” she says, while also acknowledging that the internet isn’t always a friendly place. “People always comment stuff that they would never say to your face, so part of it is just having developed tough skin as well. Social media is hard. It’s a very hard place to be.”

While juggling life as an athlete, influencer and student may seem overwhelming, Dunne says she’s particular when it comes to managing her priorities.

“When I’m doing school, I try not to get distracted with my social media and vice versa,” she says. “In the morning, I usually do my school first, and then I go to the gym and I just dial in in the gym. And then when I get back from practice, that’s usually when I look at social media and get content ideas; I make content at the end of the day.”

Dunne hopes to double her business growth in brand deals and establish her NIL collective this year and eventually create her own product line while mentoring female athletes.

“I dream of big goals for myself that might not even make sense at the time, but I think you need to set your own expectations for success and dream big,” she says.

Dunne is officially checking one ambitious item off her bucket list next month when she makes her debut in the SI Swimsuit Issue. Appearing in the magazine was a lifelong goal that she says was on her vision board.

“The way that the [SI Swimsuit] brand has evolved and has become such a positive spotlight for women to tell their stories and to spread awesome messages and just be strong, sexy and beautiful, I knew that was something I wanted to be part of,” Dunne says.

While she regularly posts snapshots of herself in bikinis on Instagram, Dunne’s photo shoot with the franchise was her first time modeling swimwear. She describes her photo shoot in Puerto Rico with photographer Ben Watts as a “dream come true,” and she says she’s never felt so comfortable in her own skin.

“That’s something that’s really important, that a brand makes you feel comfortable, confident, and that you feel like you’re the best version of yourself,” Dunne says. “And that’s definitely what SI [Swimsuit] made me feel like. I felt like a better person leaving that shoot.”

Meet Olivia Dunne—read the 2023 SI Swimsuit model’s full feature profile here.