Update: Dunne is dating Pittsburgh Pirates super-prospect Paul Skenes, the #1 overall pick in last year’s draft to form a new sports power couple.
Olivia Dunne might be the most famous person you have never heard of. She’s a major celebrity, but mostly within the world of web 2.0. Known as “Livvy” Dunne, the junior at LSU and superstar gymnast has 6.7 million followers on Tik Tok and close to three million followers on Instagram.
This is actually so scary and disturbing and cringey. I’m embarrassed for them… pic.twitter.com/h23bBdBQ9B
— Samantha Peszek (@samanthapeszek) January 8, 2023
A big-time money maker through NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) and as an influencer on social media, she has an insanely devoted fan base, one that seems to be growing in numbers by the day.
And as you can see from the video above, some of that supporter base is a little too insane.
That video comes from #6 LSU’s season opening meet at #3 Utah in Salt Lake City. It was meet where Dunne was even competing, due to injury. If you thought that much of that video was more than a bit cringey, well, you’re not alone.
The “We want Livvy!” kid is especially weird and creepy.
The incident has led Louisiana State University to beef up security at all women’s gymnastics meets, at home and on the road.
“We will have security detail with us now when we go on the road and we will be working to create a perimeter around where we get on the bus, where we load,” LSU gymnastics coach Jay Clark said to reporters.
“We are going to change some of the policies of allowing the girls to go into the stands immediately following a meet. We’ve always allowed them to go up there post-meet with their families and interact with them.
“We want to make sure we still provide them with that time with their families, but there won’t be any more going into the stands and there will be a limited amount of time that they can interact with the fans in the stands over the rail and that will be monitored closely.”
Indeed the cult of Livvy is pretty crazed, and a lot of it seems to be teenage and tween boys. Olivia Dunne is asking her acolytes to keep it clean and stay above board.
“I will always appreciate and love the support from you guys, but if you come to a meet, I want to ask you to please be respectful of the other gymnasts and the gymnastics community as we are just doing our job,” she wrote in a tweet.
Olivia Dunne, 20, is the highest-earning woman in collegiate sports, and with that money and fame comes a massive responsibility. Good on her to step up and make a posting with the right kind of message to her followers
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to Ravens Wire, part of the USA Today SMG’s NFL Wire Network and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.