LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne is asking her fans to be respectful of other gymnasts after they were responsible for a worrisome scene at the first meet of the season in Salt Lake City on Friday. Many were there just to see her, even though the 20-year-old was not in the lineup. One mother of a Utah athlete said some fans were “disrespectful” to the athletes.
“I will always appreciate and love the support from you guys, but if you come to a meet, I want to ask you to please be respectful of the other gymnasts and the gymnastics community as we are just doing our job,” Dunne tweeted to her 52,400 followers on Jan. 8. She included a heart emoji.
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“It is not ok to blame any athlete/celebrity when fan behavior crosses the line,” Dunne’s mother, Katherine Dunne, added in another tweet. “In a sport where all the girls wear nothing but leotards stop suggesting that how Livvy dresses means she deserves this in any way. Stop shaming girls for the behavior of boys.”
Dunne is one of the most-followed college athletes in the world, with over 2.7 million followers on Instagram. She also has over 6.7 million followers on TikTok, where her videos regularly rack up between 2 million and 6 million views. On3 and NIL Valuations estimate that Dunne’s social media posts put her value at $2.3 million.
The New Jersey native was not in the LSU Tigers’ lineup while she deals with labrum injuries. This did not stop Dunne’s mostly male fans from showing up at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday. They even chanted “we want Livvy,” referring to Dunne’s nickname, while the meet was ongoing, reports Outkick.
Dunne’s fans took attention away from the gymnasts, which disturbed many professional observers. Commentator and Olympic medalist Samantha Pescek tweeted a video of male fans screaming at the venue’s exit, which she called a “scary and disturbing and cringey” scene. Two-time Olympic medalist Kathy Johnson Clarke wrote that fans were screaming at her, “Are you Livvy’s mom? Are you Livvy’s mom?”
KSL’s Josh Furlong tweeted that LSU had to move its team bus to avoid running into the fans. Police officers were also stationed in front of them to keep the group of mostly teen boys from getting in, Furlong wrote. “There’s literally a line outside of the Huntsman Center of teenage boys that keep asking if Livvy is coming out,” he wrote. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Jennifer Hoffman, whose daughter Jillian Hoffman is a Utah Utes gymnast, wrote on Facebook that the group of Dunne fans “swarmed” her daughter and her teammate as they walked to their car. “They literally said to their faces, ‘You are not Livvy but you will do, can we get a picture?’ [The group] also called my daughter Livvy 2.0,” Hoffman wrote, reports OutKick. “They were so rude and disrespectful. It was very hard for mama bear not to come out.”
In a follow-up message, Hoffman said that her daughter and her Utes teammate were not harassed or assaulted, but the fans’ comments were disrespectful. “[Jillian and her teammate] were approached by a large group of teenage boys, disappointed that LSU had already left the arena and they wouldn’t be getting the photos of their dreams,” Hoffman wrote. “They did not know the girls’ names. They just wanted photos with gymnasts and were disrespectful in the things they were saying. End of story!”
