Olivia Dunne Opens Up on Fame As a Woman in Sports—and Why Taylor Swift Gets It

The 2025 SI Swimsuit cover model told ‘Page Six’ all the details.

Olivia Dunne at Hard Rock Hotel New York. / Taylor Hill/WireImage/Getty Images

Despite announcing her retirement from gymnastics back in April, Olivia Dunne has remained a force to be reckoned with in the sports world—just in a different way.

The SI Swimsuit model—who secured her first cover feature during her third year in the fold this May—has been traveling around the country to MLB stadiums nationwide to support her longtime boyfriend, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes.

While no longer competing herself, Dunne still faces obstacles when it comes to living life in the public eye, and she recently chatted with Page Six about one specific celebrity’s outlook that she’s especially fond of: Taylor Swift.

Paul Skenes, Olivia Dunne at the 2025 All-Star Red Carpet Show / Todd Kirkland/MLB Photos/Getty Images

“[Taylor] has her boyfriend that’s a professional athlete and my boyfriend is a professional athlete as well,” Dunne told the publication. Swift has been publicly linked to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce since 2023, and first appeared at one of his matchups in September of that same year.

“She has her own success and I have my own success,” the model continued, “So I try to look at her perspective on things and how she handles criticism, how she navigates.”

And Dunne isn’t afraid to clap back at online hate, as she also acknowledged Swift’s experience with internet trolls. “I think that she takes the heat a lot worse than I do because, I mean, the bigger you are, the more people you have trying to tear you down,” the cover girl continued. “It’s a unique position to be in. And I think for some people, women in sports is uncomfortable for some reason.”

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But that doesn’t stop Dunne. In fact, her athletic career was the catalyst for her debut with the magazine back in 2023. Alongside fellow former LSU Tiger Angel Reese, the multi-talented duo joined SI Swimsuit together with photo shoots in Puerto Rico and Los Angeles, respectively. “My childhood was full of gymnastics,” the former NCAA athlete told us at the time, adding that to participate in the Olympic Games was her “dream growing up.”

And, while that chapter has closed for the SI Swimsuit model, she won’t be stepping away from the sports world anytime soon. While off on her own endeavors—like her newest campaign with Fanatics—she’ll be cheering on Skenes every step of the way as the MLB postseason commences next month.

“He has a job to do and I have a job to do,” Dunne told PEOPLE in June, adding, “I know that’s so important for two young kids in a relationship to realize.”

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