Livvy Dunne Is Retiring — But Says She’ll Always Be a ‘Gymnast at Heart’

Livvy Dunne knows that she’s not what people typically think of when they imagine a world-famous athlete. 

The 22-year-old gymnast, whose legal name is Olivia Paige Dunne, grew a social media platform 8 million followers deep on TikTok — posting videos of her life, routine, and experiences as a gymnast at Louisiana State University. (In 2023, Dunne was featured on Rolling Stone’s Creator List). The athlete, who was recently a cover star for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, was part of the LSU gymnastic team that took home the 2024 Collegiate National Championship — the first in the school’s history. But her presence on the national stage continues to grow, even as she announced her retirement from the sport in April 2025. Now no longer on the uneven bars, Dunne tells Rolling Stone that she’s excited to see how she can spend her time post-college still advocating for women in sports. 

“I’ll always advocate for women’s sports — they’re so important,’ she says. “I have a fund at LSU called the Livvy Fund, and it’s to help provide NIL [name, image, likeness] deals for female student athletes. I’d like to expand that to other schools and keep helping women and educating them because it is harder for women to get NIL deals and to know what to do. Because there’s not a lot of knowledge or opportunity in that area. That’s so important to me.” 

In May, Dunne opened Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Runway Show during Miami, Florida’s Swim Week alongside athletes like Jordan Chiles and Ilona Maher. It was Dunne’s first runway show, and even though she was nervous, she decided to fully lean into the performance — dropping down into a split at the end of the runway. 

“I was so nervous that during rehearsal I walked down the wrong side of the runway,” Dunne says, laughing. “But whenever I get nervous, I just take a deep breath and smile, because that makes me feel my best. I actually had my Invisalign aligners in and then I went on the runway, had all the confidence in the world and dropped into a split. Because why not? Gymnastics will never leave me. I’ll always be a gymnast at heart.” 

One of the things that Dunne feels even more passionate about is using her platform to call out bad behavior and harassment that female athletes often experience once they reach a certain level of fame. While fans were celebrating Dunne on the cover of Sports Illustrated, she posted that she was getting harassed by groups of middle aged men who would figure out her flight information and stalk her while she was in airports, following and yelling at her for an autograph. The experience has been echoed by other female sports stars, including Gabby Thomas, an Olympic gold-medalist for track and field. 

“There’s a line and it was being crossed. I mean, I love signing autographs for people. I never have a problem. But it’s when somebody knows where you’re going to be before you,” she says. “Sometimes they’ll buy tickets to get through security to wait. It’s a little uncomfortable for a female traveling alone, and a little creepy. So I think me speaking out about it and bringing it to light again was important because it was a bit out of hand.” 

And now that she’s hung up her leotard, what’s next? Dunne will continue to be an influencer, picking up deals with companies like Invisalign, while also helping fellow female athletes trying to grow in their sport and also take control of their own social media presences.

“My favorite thing about social media is the friendships that I’ve made,” she tells Rolling Stone. “Meeting other people that have the same passion as you and a similar drive is so fun. And the way that you can connect with people in different parts of the country, that’s so special. It’s changed my life.”