It’s been a pretty big news week for the power couple of LSU sports.
First, former LSU ace pitcher and now Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes capped his meteoric rise through the first half of his rookie season with an unprecedented selection Sunday to next week’s All-Star Game. Then came Monday’s much-anticipated announcement that his girlfriend, LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne, is returning for a fifth season with the Tigers in 2025.
Dunne was in Pittsburgh last weekend and threw Skenes an impromptu celebration at his apartment with pizza and huge gold balloons that spelled out “All Star.” Her pride at his achievement was evident in a phone interview Monday afternoon.
“I was super excited, obviously,” Dunne said. “It’s an iconic accolade to be an All-Star. It really highlights the accomplishments he’s had his rookie year.
“I feel every game he’s proven himself and shown so much consistency. I just think that’s what makes him so great. It inspires me, honestly, makes me want to be better.”
That motivation will serve Dunne for one more season at LSU, a season she did not have to take part in. It would have been easy for Dunne, with her 13 million social media followers and multiple commercial endorsements, to head off into the full-time world of being a pop celebrity. Especially considering she was part of the first LSU gymnastics team to win an NCAA championship back in April.
But something tugged Dunne back to the gym. Multiple somethings, probably. Certainly it doesn't hurt her brand to be one of if not the most high-profile athlete in college athletics. No college athlete has more social media followers, and few if any trigger the kind of media attention she gets when she does ... anything.
It was more than that for Dunne, though. She talked about rediscovering her love for gymnastics this past season, in which she competed in nine meets after getting into action just four times in 2023 because of leg injuries.
And she loves being part of the team. As flattering as the limelight has been to Dunne, there is something about the safe harbor of the LSU locker room and being among her teammates.
There, she isn’t Livvy Dunne. That’s the public persona that she has carefully crafted through all the TikTok videos and Nautica commercials and Sports Illustrated photo shoots. In the gym, among her teammates and coaches, she is just Liv, or more formally, Olivia.
“I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without my teammates,” she said.
Skenes isn’t the only high-profile athlete in Dunne’s life outside of the LSU gymnastics team. The New Jersey native used to train back home with Hezly Rivera, the 16-year-old phenom who is one of five gymnasts selected for the U.S. Olympic team.
The gymnastics world is a small one.
“She was young, but there were only three of us in the elite group,” Dunne said. “Me and Hezly and Corinne Bunagan, who’s at Alabama. We all trained together.
“She (Rivera) has always been super talented from a young age. Great character and super sweet.”
LSU, by the way, is strongly recruiting Rivera, who moved from New Jersey to Dallas and trained there alongside current Tigers gymnast Konnor McClain, herself an Olympic hopeful before suffering an Achilles tendon tear at a pre-Olympic meet in May. The Tigers are currently the leader for her pledge, but the recruiting process has a lot of tumbles left to go.
What’s next for Dunne? The All-Star Game, of course, Tuesday at the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Field in Arlington.
That was pretty much a given for Dunne. Gymnastics for LSU next season was not. But now, she has plans she hopes will take her through next year’s NCAA championships in April.