Social media influencer and former LSU gymnast Olivia 'Livvy' Dunne revealed that her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit modeling career "all started because of a hit piece" published by the New York Times during her collegiate career in November 2022.
Dunne, 22, discussed being featured in the article entitled, 'New Endorsements for College Athletes Resurface an Old Concern: Sex Sells,' having participated on the guise of discussing her Name, Image and Likeness earnings, while appearing on former WWE co-CEO Stephanie McMahon's What's Your Story? podcast.
“So I got offered to be in Sports Illustrated — it all started because of a hit piece The New York Times wrote about me,” Dunne said. “So they came to our gymnastics facility at LSU, took pictures of me. They said, ‘Wear your team-issued attire, put on a leotard,’’ and they took a picture of me standing in front of the beam, like any gymnast would, and then they blew it up on the screen and put the headline, ‘Sex Sells.’
“Okay, well, you just came into the facility and took pictures of me in our team-issued attire and blew it up on a screen… So I was like, ‘Okay, well, this is crazy.’ And there was obviously a lot of backlash to The New York Times because of that.”
Dunne had shared a response to the publication in a post on her Instagram account after the article was published.
“And I decided I [was] going to put that same picture that they posted and captioned ‘sex sells’ on my Instagram story and write ‘at The New York Times, is this too much?’” Dunne said on the podcast while reflecting on the incident. “Because, come on, you know what you’re doing. You just put a picture of me in a leotard for clicks and then caption it ‘sex sells.’
“… And then people loved that. They were like, ‘This is so great,’ because no, it’s not too much. You’re in your team-issued attire, which is a leotard for gymnasts. I can’t control that…. So it was just ridiculous. There was a lot of positive feedback from that. So, Sports Illustrated reached out to my agent. I was so excited about that. That was always a dream of mine. I mean, there’s some legends and some amazing athletes that have been in Sports Illustrated.”
Dunne was among several cover models for this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, having made her debut in 2023. The New Jersey native was a member of LSU's national championship team in 2024, before returning for a fifth and final season in 2025.