Why is Olivia Dunne not participating in the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials? All about the LSU gymnast's Olympic pursuits

Olivia Dunne is a senior gymnast at LSU Tigers, who has proved herself worthy of being named alongside elite gymnasts like Simone Biles and Suni Lee. Although her college gymnastics career has been nothing short of exceptional, the LSU senior gymnast decided to stay away from Olympic pursuit, citing a past ankle injury.

Olivia Dunne has amassed a huge social media following, including 8 million TikTok followers, 5 million Instagram followers, and 144k Twitter followers. Dunne is one of the highest- NIL-earning athletes in the college realm and was also a part of the LSU gymnastics contingent that won the NCAA Championships

With less than 30 days left for the 2024 Paris Olympics, elite American gymnasts are vying for a spot at the 2024 U.S. Olympics gymnastics Trials at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota from Thursday, June 27 to Sunday, June 30. Despite establishing herself as a popular gymnast in the NCAA circuit, the 21-year-old has no intentions of vying for Olympic glory.

During an interview with "BFFs: Dave Portnoy, Josh Richards & Bri Chickenfry" in 2021, Olivia Dunne opened up about not pursuing Olympic dreams, citing an injury she suffered at a young age.

"That dream has died. Well I got hurt when I was about I think 15 or 16 years old, my bone had like died in my ankle and it fractured so I kind of realized maybe this is not for me anymore and maybe I should just go to college and be healthy and happy," Dunne said (at 54:11).

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"Elite gymnastics program is pretty dysfunctional" - Olivia Dunne reveals about the Elite gymnastics circuit

Olivia Dunne opened up about the environment in the elite gymnastics circuit during the same interview. Although the Elite gymnasts, including Simone Biles, Suni Lee, and Jordan Chiles are some of the most celebrated personalities in the nation, Dunne revealed the intense atmosphere around it.

She criticized the elite gymnastics program by referring to it as "pretty dysfunctional" and said,

"The Elite gymnastics program is pretty dysfunctional. I kind of decided just like why not go to LSU and I mean a lot of my Elite friends that I did gymnastics with and stuff, they're at LSU with me."

"In gymnastics, there's levels like one through ten and then you can go beyond that if you want to go train for the Olympics which I do not want to do and I would not recommend it since it's really crazy but the Elite is like higher than level 10 and it's honestly just crazy," Olivia Dunne added.

The information about the ongoing 2024 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials can be found here.