Olivia Dunne opened up about the brutal injury that dashed her dreams of becoming an Olympic gymnast.
“I was actually competing on a hurt ankle at the 2018 USA Championships and, yeah, part of my ankle bone died. … Yeah, it just died. So, my Olympic dreams died with it,” Dunne said on Thursday’s episode of the “What’s Your Story? With Steph McMahon” podcast. “It kind of healed a little bit. It stopped bothering me. I went to college after that, but it was so painful. That was kind of my first real injury.”
Dunne suffered the injury, osteochondritis dissecans, while competing at the senior elite level as a 16-year-old.
“I’ve actually never gotten any surgery, which is kind of crazy for a gymnast,” she added. “And I was like, I think if I just give myself time to heal, I can heal without surgery. But that’s something I take pride in. I have never needed surgery as a gymnast, which is very uncommon.”
Dunne began to compete in elite gymnastics in 2014, and she went on to join LSU, where she helped the Tigers to their first-ever national championship in 2024. She became a prominent figure on social media in her early years at LSU during Covid.
The 22-year-old announced her retirement from gymnastics in April 2025 in the wake of an injury-riddled senior season.
“Gymnastics, you have filled my heart and will always be a part of me,” Dunne said in her retirement message. “You’ve shaped me into the person I am today, creating memories and sisterhoods that will last a lifetime beyond the sport. You are my first love.”
She currently boasts 8 million followers on TikTok, 5.4 million on Instagram and 191,100 on X, and is also a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.
Recently, she’s been spotted often at MLB ballparks to cheer on her boyfriend, Pirates ace and former LSU standout Paul Skenes.