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Former LSU -Gymnast Livvy Dunne still doesn’t let the New York Times away from the hook for a controversial 2022 story about her using a headline that included the phrase “sex seller.”
The article in November 2022, entitled “New Endors for College Athletes, reappears An Old Concern: Sex Seller”, Dunne described as “A Petite Blonde with a bright smile and a gymnast’s tinted physics.” The article continued to argue that the name, image and equality in women’s university sports “rewards traditional feminine desires in relation to athletic expertise.”
Dunne spoke against the newspaper in an interview about “What is your story?” Podcast. She remembered that the employees of the paper allegedly asked her to wear the clothes they ended up putting the notorious headline.
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Mar 7 2025; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; LSU Tigers Olivia Dunne looks at during the meeting against the Georgia Bulldogs in the Maravich Center. (Stephen Lew-IMAGN images)
“They came to our gymnastics facility at LSU, took pictures of me. They said, ‘Wear your team-issued attire, put a leotard,’ ‘and they took a picture of me standing in front of the beam as any gymnast would, and then they blasted it up on the screen and put the headline,’ Sex Seller ‘,'” Dunne that is on the podcast.
“Okay, yes, you just got into the plant and took pictures of me in our team-issuing attire and blasted it up on a screen … So I was like ‘Okay, this is crazy.’ And there was obviously a lot of setback to the New York Times because of it.
Dunne then told how she mocked the New York Times on social media for the design decision, and ended up getting a modeling offer from Sports Illustrated as a result.
“I decided I would post the same photo they sent, and caption ‘Sex sells’ on my Instagram story and write ‘at The New York Times, is this too much?’ Because, come on, you know what you’re doing.
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Mar 7 2025; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; LSU Tigers Olivia Dunne during the meeting against the Georgia Bulldogs in the Maravich Center. (Stephen Lew-IMAGN images)
“And then people loved it. They were like this is so good because no, it’s not too much. You’re in your team-issuing attire, which is a leotard for gymnast. There was a lot of positive feedback from it. So sports illustrated reached out to my agent. I was so excited about it. It was always a dream for mine.
Dunne has previously spoken against the newspaper for the play.
During a performance on “Full Send Podcast” in the summer of 2023, she called the piece “BS” and claims that the reporter asked her “strange” and “odd” questions.
“It was complete BS. I mean, they called me on the phone in November and they told me they would write about my results and things and I was like, ‘ok, certainly. It’s great. The New York Times. It’s huge,'” she said.
“The interviewer called me and he asked me very strange questions. It was formulated quite strange,” she explained. “He was like ‘so how does it feel to be a little petite blonde gymnast who did so well with zero.’ I was like ‘why does it mean I am petite and blonde.’ You can just ask me about zero without having to use these weird ways of saying it.
LSU Tigers Gymnast Olivia Dunne shown during the SEC Gymnastics Championship at Gas South Arena. (Dale Zanine-usa Today Sports)
Dunne has been one of the best -followed athletes on social media since she joined LSU. She boasts more than 8 million followers at Tiktok and another 5.4 million on Instagram. She helped Tigers a national championship in 2024, but her last year with LSU was derailed due to an injury.
Since then she has been seen cheering on her boyfriend, Paul Skenes, as he creates waves in MLB with Pittsburgh Pirates.
