BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA: Olivia Dunne aka Livvy, recently announced her decision to take a different career route in an interview with Elle magazine. The influencer and college athlete wouldn't be pursuing elite gymnastics and rather chooses to focus on collegiate-level events.
On the other hand, Simone Biles is a decked Olympic gymnast as she has already gathered 32 medals by participating in various global events. Despite her announcement, Dunne is still dedicated to improving the sports community through her own initiatives. Even though both athletes have taken the sport of gymnastics to unprecedented heights regardless of their divergent paths, the LSU star found herself at the receiving end of backlash from Biles' fans after a post about them went viral.
Olivia Dunne receives wrath from Simone Biles' fans
After her hiatus, the seven-time Olympic legend, Biles, is set to return to the beams. She had previously supported her American teammates during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics despite having "twisties," and her comeback through the US Classic demonstrates her tenacity. On the other hand, Dunne is an influencer who rose to prominence through her gymnastics-related content and plans to develop a platform that would enable female athletes to easily negotiate corporate collaborations using her own experience as inspiration.
Despite the duo not having any apparent feud, when a throwback picture of Biles and Dunne was posted on a Facebook fan page named "Queen Simone Biles" with a caption praising both of their influence on the next generation of gymnasts garnered mixed reactions from Bile's fans, many claiming that Dunne is nowhere near Biles when it comes to the sport. "Olivia Dunne and Simone Biles are setting the bar high for the next generation of gymnasts," read the post.
'She's nowhere near elite level'
As soon as the post was shared, the divided fans began to let out their views in the comment section. A user wrote, "What an insult to Simone. They are not even close to being on the same level," with another adding, "Ok, I have nothing against Olivia Dunne. She's a pretty girl who is leveraging her looks in a very intelligent way to get rich and that's fine. But from the perspective of gymnastics to mention her in the same breath as Simone Biles is ridiculous." "Simone is all about gymnastics. Olivia is all about herself," opined one, while another stated, "How is Olivia setting the bar high for gymnastics? Serious question. She's popular and makes a ton of money, but from a gymnastics perspective she's nowhere near elite level. Her NCAA season high in 2023 was 9.850 on bars with her average on bars being 9.788."
