Olivia Dunne vs Sydney Smith: From stealing content accusations to the flexibility war, a look into the never-ending saga of elitism

Whatever Olivia Dunne does, turns into news, and the fastest way to generate trends is by using her name, as gymnast Sydney Smith found out. Dunne, affectionately known as Livvy, has become famous due to her racy pictures and videos on social media.

Dunne has become so popular, she is the most followed student-athlete in the country, with 4.2 million Instagram followers and 7.6 million TikTok followers. She has brand endorsements with brands like Motorola, AI and Caktus.

A few weeks ago, South Connecticut gymnast, Sydney Smith teasingly claimed that Dunne had stolen a split move from her. With that one statement, a whole new can of worms was opened.

Smith has 230,000 Instagram and 1.2 million TikTok followers, which is substantial but nowhere near Olivia Dunne's 11.8 million combined followers.

In this age of celebrities having hardcore fans, known as stans, any perceived hostility brings about a huge online reaction. It all started with Illinois State gymnast Breckie Hill's apparent spat with Dunne.

When Dunne suggested that women with bigger breasts might not be flexible enough to do gymnastics at a high level, referencing Hill, the gloves came off. Smith took Hill's side and posted a video on TikTok calling out Dunne's assessment.

She called Dunne's opinion 'horrible' and encouraged women of any size to indulge in gymnastics anyway.

Olivia Dunne doesn't seem too bothered by the perceived beef with Smith, though. She recently announced a partnership with Bayou Traditions to start 'The Livvy Fund' which will help female LSU athletes gain brand endorsements in line with the NIL (Name, Image, and likeness) ruling.

However the tension between the two gymnasts goes, female student-athletes have found it easier to partner with big brands and earn from their abilities. Players like Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark and the Cavinder twins are at the forefront of the NIL era of student-athletes.

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Controversies surrounding Olivia Dunne

Olivia Dunne is no stranger in catching headlines, and most recently, one of her TikTok videos brought forth a fresh wave of controversy.

Dunne attended the NASCAR Cup Series race in Nashville in June and was pictured with driver Chase Elliot which had fans speculating that they were dating. That wasn't the topic of controversy, though.

She posted a video on TikTok posing alongside two U.S. Army soldiers and mouthing the words to the background song that stated, "My pronouns are U.S.A.". In some quarters, Dunne was praised as patriotic for the video, while in others, she was blasted for misusing pronouns.

Welcome to the era of Olivia Dunne, the queen of NIL.