Olivia Dunne Shows off Injury in New Selfie

LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne has not had a chance to compete this season so far due to a leg injury. Dunne, a junior majoring in communication studies, shared a mirror selfie from the gymnastics team locker room Monday, showing off the big boot she is wearing on her leg. Even though Dunne has been stuck on the sidelines, she is by far the most talked-about member of the team due to her massive social media following.

The Tigers’ gymnastics season started on Jan. 6 in Salt Lake City. The team finally had their home opener in Baton Rouge on Monday. They earned a season-high score of 197.450 against top-ranked Oklahoma. They had a record home crowd, with 12,065 fans cheering the team on.

Many of those fans may have been there just to root for Dunne, unaware that she is still recovering from her injury. The scene in Salt Lake City made it clear how her online fanbase has manifested into groups of mostly young men screaming her name. Jay Clark, the gymnastics team head coach, described the scene as “mob-like,” reports CNN. The team now plans to increase security for road meets. “The safety of our student-athletes is paramount to me as a father and as a coach of these amazing young women,” Clark said.

“We are going to change some of the policies of allowing the girls to go into the stands immediately following a meet,” Clark also told ESPN. “We’ve always allowed them to go up there post-meet with their families and interact with them. We want to make sure we still provide them with that time with their families, but there won’t be anymore going into the stands and there will be a limited amount of time that they can interact with the fans in the stands over the rail and that will be monitored closely.”

After the meet in Utah, Dunne asked her fans to be respectful of other 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,” she wrote.

Dunne has become a social media superstar. She has over 3 million followers on Instagram, 59,400 followers on Twitter and 6.8 million followers on TikTok. The video she posted on Monday from the LSU locker room has over 2 million views already. On3 and NIL Valuations estimate that her social media posts bring her value to $2.3 million, by far the most of any female college athlete.