Olivia Dunne had the Olympic dream like so many young gymnasts. “I wanted to go to the Olympics, compete for the USA, and make the USA National Team and wear the USA gear and just go to different countries and stuff,” she said. But let’s be real—when she first started gymnastics at three years old, it wasn’t about medals or international glory. Nope. It was about one thing: a sparkly pink leotard.

“But little did I know what an exciting future was ahead of me,” she admitted. And she wasn’t kidding. By 2017, she had already locked in a full athletic scholarship to LSU for 2020. But as she got older, she realized gymnastics wasn’t just about skills and talent—it came with a cost, and for her, that cost was injuries.

That Olympic dream? Yeah, it didn’t exactly go as planned. “That dream has died. I got hurt when I was about 15 or 16 years old. My bone had died in my ankle and it fractured, so I realized maybe this isn’t for me anymore and maybe I should just go to college and be healthy and happy,” Olivia Dunne shared. The demanding training had severely affected her body, so when she broke both ankles, she realized the Olympic pursuit might no longer be feasible.

The chance to compete at the highest level of sports brought her excitement, but she began to question the price she would pay. Are there different paths for her to pursue gymnastic aspirations without jeopardizing both her health and her happiness? That’s when it hit her—NCAA gymnastics could give her everything she wanted, just in a different way.

“It was cool to me that people got to travel and be on TV and do all these cool things when it came to the Olympics,” Olivia Dunne said to GQ Sports. “But I was like, I wonder if I can still do cool things like that but not have to go to the Olympics to attain those goals and those cool things.”

She achieved exactly that. Dunne left elite gymnastics behind her and prospered in college gymnastics as she built a social media platform. Her success became established independently from the Olympics because she built her reputation through her own achievements. But does that mean college gymnastics came without struggles?

Olivia Dunne’s smart play choosing longevity over limelight

Olivia Dunne has been through the wringer with injuries at LSU. From the 2022–2023 season on, it’s been one setback after another—torn labrums, a bicep injury, and even a stress reaction in her leg that put her season on pause. She didn’t make her return until late February, finally hopping back on bars and scoring a solid 9.825 against Alabama. And just when it seemed like she was in the clear, 2025 threw another wrench in the works—a patella avulsion fracture that knocked her out of Senior Night and might have ended her season altogether. And with the NCAA final just around the corner, she might not be able to attend it even though it’s her last season with LSU.

But here’s the real question: If injuries happen in both NCAA and Olympic gymnastics, why did Olivia Dunne stick with college instead of chasing the Olympic dream?

Well, it all comes down to training intensity, skill difficulty, and scoring. Olympic gymnasts train insane hours and go for high-risk skills, which means more chances to get hurt. NCAA gymnasts, on the other hand, follow a more structured schedule with slightly less difficulty, focusing on consistency over daredevil moves. Then there’s the scoring system. In the Olympics, difficulty is king—if you want the big scores, you have to take big risks. NCAA gymnastics?

It’s all about execution. The 10.0 system rewards clean, precise routines, so gymnasts don’t have to push the danger level as much. With fewer training hours and a focus on longevity, NCAA gymnastics is generally easier on the body, though repetitive stress injuries are still a thing. For Olivia Dunne, sticking with college gymnastics probably gave her the best shot at balancing performance, health, and, let’s be real, actually being able to walk after her career.