Turbulence In NCAA gymnastics After Olivia Dunne’s Benching: Report Brings Bad News

The 2024 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships produced several upsets, notably unprecedented falls and untimely blunders, before concluding on April 20. By all accounts, women’s collegiate gymnastics appeared to be living up to the expectations at the time, with familiar faces of Tokyo Olympians—and the highest-earning NIL gymnast, Olivia Dunne. Moreover, ticket sales for the first two sessions increased by 25% from last year while a rare perfect individual score of 10, which is incredibly difficult for a gymnast to obtain and comes with no faults, was witnessed enough times to spark speculation.

It was after social media sensation and LSU Tigers gymnast, Olivia Dunne—known as Livvy, was benched without a plausible cause that prompted fans to take to the internet to discuss. Now, a fresh perspective recently joined the conversation around the chaotic championship wrap.

Olivia Dunne’s absence substantiated by new reports

Livvy is an LSU favorite, particularly among those involved in collegiate athletics, thus her absence was felt as her team rose through the ranks to win their first national title at the 2024 NCAA women’s gymnastics. But as more controversies surrounded women’s collegiate gymnastics, things cooled down.

Now, @UtahMarz took to X and wrote, “Disappointing ticket sales and now disappointing ratings: ABC’s #NCAAGym Champs at a 0.49 and 856,000, down 20% and 16% respectively from last year’s 16-year high (0.6, 1.02M) and the smallest audience for the event in the three years since it returned to broadcast television.”

An ideal illusion was set up, leading the audience to believe Livvy was competing in the final event as she warmed up on uneven bars at Dickies Arena. However, it looked like she was not the best gymnast to have in the lineup for any event from her season’s performances. In the closely contested battle, the LSU Tigers won with a score of 198.2250, while California finished second with 197.8500, Utah finished third, and Florida rounded out the top four.

Some top ten teams, including Michigan, Kentucky, Missouri, and UCLA, were eliminated in the regional second rounds and finals due to unexpected falls and errors. Nonetheless, the upsets gave an unexpected champions this year. Many lower-ranked teams pulled off Cinderella stories and advanced to the Elite Eight, with Arkansas and Stanford pulling off a surprising visit. Now it’s time for the most talked-about dispute, which may have impacted the entire scene of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships.

The score surge in the women’s collegiate gymnastics scene

Some gymnastics experts believe LSU was overscored on their routines, while California underlined the primary trend. There were reasons to expect that judge, the arbiters of scoring in gymnastics would become more critical in their judgments of routines this year, therefore moderating some of the sport’s wild scoring inflation of past years but in reality that wasn’t true.

Let’s look at it from the numbers perspective: Over the last decade, the number of perfect 10s granted has skyrocketed. In 2011, just two routines achieved flawless 10 ratings. In 2022, 71 did. In 2024 more than 80 routines were given perfect marks. In a season that was marred by many tumbles, what do you think about the insight?