What is Olivia Dunne's beef with the New York Times? Tiktok star claps back at the NY Times hit piece "S*x Sells"

Olivia Dunne has reached unprecedented levels of fame for a college gymnast, being the most followed student-athlete with a combined 11.8 million followers. She has 4.2 million Instagram and 7.6 million TikTok followers.

With fame comes scrutiny and even the New York Times joined in the public discourse about Dunne's popularity. In November, they published a piece about Dunne titled: “New Endorsements for College Athletes Resurface an Old Concern: Sex Sells.”

The piece claimed that the only reason Dunne got her endorsements was because of her appearance and not her athletic ability.

She was so incensed by the piece that she goaded them by posting a racy picture on Instagram with the caption: “@Nytimes Is this too much?”

Her clap back didn't end there, with Olivia Dunne later elaborating further:

“It was complete BS. I mean, they called me on the phone in November and they told me that they were going to write about my accomplishments and stuff and I was like, ‘OK, for sure. That’s awesome. The New York Times. That’s huge. The interviewer called me and he was asking me very odd questions. It was worded quite weird.”

Olivia Dunne's NIL valuation

After standing up to the New York Times last year, and refusing to back down to the public pressure, Olivia Dunne gained some highly-placed admirers.

She mentioned that she got to be on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition because of her stance against the New York Times last year.

This has led to her NIL valuation escalating to the point where Dunne claimed that she was paid over $500,000 for one sponsored Instagram post. Her NIL valuation is estimated to be $3.3 million, second only to USC star Bronny James.

Olivia Dunne has shown a variety of interests which have only raised her profile further. She was pictured in Omaha during the College World Series supporting the LSU Tigers baseball team led by Dylan Crews as they won the series.

She was also pictured in the NASCAR Cup Series in Nashville with defending champion, Chase Elliott which set tongues wagging. There was yet another controversy building attached to that race in Nashville as well for Dunne.

Dunne posted a video on her TikTok account of her standing next to two U.S Army soldiers while she mouthed the words to a song, 'My pronouns are U.S.A." Fresh controversy erupted with some people criticizing her for misusing pronouns while others complimented her on her patriotism.

Whatever she does, Olivia Dunne's celebrity seems to be on the rise regardless.