"What if my mom never signed me up" - Paul Skenes' girlfriend Olivia Dunne reflects on life without gymnastics
Paul Skenes' girlfriend Olivia Dunne started playing gymnastics at a very young age. This career path would go on to land her at LSU, as she enrolled in 2020 while representing the Tigers in gymnastics.
Around the same time, Dunne posted videos on TikTok of her gymnastic routines and later in other areas, which propelled her popularity. Now, she is the highest-earning female NIL athlete, boasting over five million followers on Instagram.
However, nothing may have happened had her mother not enrolled her in gymnastics. Dunne posted her reaction to that in her latest video which she uploaded on Friday.
"What if my mom never signed me up for gymnastics," she wrote.
Meanwhile, Olivia Dunne's beau Paul Skenes has just completed his spectacular rookie season that saw him not only making the All-Star game but also starting for the NL side as a rookie. With an 11-3, 1.96 ERA, the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie is primed to win the NL Rookie of the Year.
Olivia Dunne opens up about trolls and gives Paul Skenes analogy to explain her role in LSU Tigers team
The downside of being famous is getting in the public eye negatively for something so small. Dunne, who competes for the LSU Tigers, didn't get any of her scores counted in last season, which LSU won all the way.
In conversation with LSU basketball star Flau'jae Johnson's "Best of Both Worlds " podcast, she spoke about receiving comments from fans taking it out on her for being a benchwarmer and other things.
"After I post it with the national championship trophy, people will be like, 'You know she doesn't deserve that; she's a benchwarmer, she's this.' But I'm like, if I were a man, I feel like my boyfriend, Paul Skenes—he was the best pitcher at LSU—didn't play the final day of the national championship, but he was obviously still part of that team," Dunne said (22:00 onwards).
"And nobody says that to him. So, I feel like, being a gymnast, people don't understand the sport exactly, and they have the audacity to say those things."
Olivia Dunne will return to LSU for her fifth and final year with the team. She hopes to defend the natty, which her team won last season.