How good is Olivia Dunne at gymnastics? Breaking down LSU gymnast, social media star's NCAA & elite results | Sporting News (2024)

LSU is looking to finally get over the hump and win its first NCAA women's gymnastics title in school history.

And all eyes are going to be on junior gymnast Olivia Dunne as the Tigers look to do that.

Dunne is arguably the most popular gymnast in the sport right now. The LSU athlete has a following of 7.4 million on TikTok and has racked up a whopping 370.4 million likes on the social media platform. She also is the fifth-highest NIL earner according toOn3.com, which has her deals valued at $3.2 million.

That said, while Dunne is popular online, it is more for her social media presence than anything else. She shows off her gymnastics skills on her accounts from time to time, but few actually know just how good she is at the sport that helped her build her platform.

So, just how good is Olivia Dunne at gymnastics? Here's a breakdown of her career to date both during and before her time at LSU.

How good is Olivia Dunne at gymnastics?

Dunne is certainly a good gymnast. She isn't quite at the same level as some of the other elite gymnasts worldwide, but she has carved out a place for herself with LSU.

While Dunne's discipline is listed as all-around on LSU's official website, she has mostly competed in floor exercise and uneven bars during her collegiate career. The latter event is her best, so she has largely worked as a specialist on the bars.

Dunne has been named an All-American on the bars and owns a career-high score of9.925 in the discipline. She first logged that against Alabama during her freshman season and then did so againstCentenary as a sophom*ore.

Dunne has competed in the uneven bars at each of LSU's three SEC championship appearances during her time at the school. Her best showing came in 2021 when she finished fifth in the event.

What a routine from Olivia Dunne for a 9.90!
📺 SEC Network pic.twitter.com/LsUkEL1zvO

— LSU Gymnastics (@LSUgym) March 21, 2021

Below is a look at her scores in that discipline from each year, per RoadToNationals.com:

Dunne also competed in the 2021NCAA Championships on the uneven bars. She posted a strong mark of9.90despite LSU finishinglast in its qualifying group behind Oklahoma, Utah and Alabama.

As for her floor exercise history, Dunne's recorded her best mark twice in 2022. She posted a 9.90 againstAlabama and did the same at the Raleigh Regional II as well.

Dunne has only competed on the floor six times during her college career. Comparatively, she has participated in the uneven bars during each of her LSU meets.

How has Olivia Dunne performed in 2023?

Dunne missed a good chunk of LSU's season with a myriad of injuries. This includedtwo torn labrums, a torn bicep and a stress reaction in her leg.

As such, Dunne has participated in just four of LSU's meets to date and she has been strictly limited to the uneven bars. Below is a look at her score in each meet, perRoadToNationals.com:

Dunne's average of 9.788 lines up with her average on the uneven bars from her sophom*ore season, which was9.786. Sowhile it's a limited sample size, it doesn't appear that the injuries have caused her performance to declined in any noticeable manner.

Olivia Dunne gymnastics career before LSU

The start of Dunne's gymnastics career dates back to the 2014 American Classic. She made her elite debut at that tournament at age 11 years old and finished 28th in the all-around. Her best performance in that event came on the balance beam, where she finished 16th. She would go on to compete in the U.S. Classic as well, finishing 33rd in the all-around.

Dunne improved her scores markedly at the 2015 American Classic, placing eighth overall and logging top-10 finishes on the beam and floor exercise. She debuted at theU.S. National Championships later that year and finished 25th in the all-around.

After improving to 12th at the 2016 U.S. National Championships, Dunne was invited by Team USA to compete for the 2017 City of Jesolo Trophy as a part of the junior team. She finished sixth in the all-around for the tournament — fifth among her teammates — and helped the team to take home a gold medal. She completed that year by finishing fifth at the U.S. Classic and ninth at the national championships, wrapping her best year as a part of the junior team.

In 2018, Dunne was promoted to the senior level and finished 15th all-around at the City of Jesolo Trophy while competing with her club team. She dealt with an ankle injury for most of the season, which limited her to just the uneven bars at the 2018 American Classic, but she eventually returned to all-around competition and placed 18th at the U.S. National Championships while sitting out of the vault discipline.

Dunne sat out the 2019 season to recover from injuries and eventually participated in the Nastia Liukin Cup. She finished 11th in the all-around in her last competition before going to LSU.

Below is a look at Dunne's all-around results at major tournaments from 2014 to 2020.

Has Olivia Dunne ever been in the Olympics?

While Dunne has been a part of the U.S. national team's program and was on the junior roster when she represented them at the City of Jesolo Trophy competition in 2017, she has never been an Olympic gymnast.

The United States has sent only 10 gymnasts to the Olympics since Dunne made her elite debut in 2014. Four of them competed in college this year: Suni Lee (Auburn), Jordan Chiles (UCLA), Jade Carey (Oregon State) and Grace McCallum (Utah). The full list:

*Carey and Skinner were both individual competitorson the team's roster for the Tokyo Olympics.