Livvy Dunne: How New York Times ‘hit piece' led to SI Swimsuit dream
During a recent appearance on the 'What's Your Story?' podcast, the retired NCAA gymnast recalled the fallout from the past interview about her Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), which was titled, 'New Endorsements for College Athletes Resurface an Old Concern: Sex Sells' — and featured a snapshot of her in a LSU team-issued leotard.
'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, who landed the cover of the 2025 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, told host Stephanie McMahon.
'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.'
5 Olivia Dunne explains how she became a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model during an appearance on the 'What's Your Story?' podcast with Steph McMahon on July 17, 2025.
YouTube/What's Your Story
'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.'
At the time, Dunne fired back at the newspaper in an Instagram Story post.
5 Livvy Dunne's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover for the 2025 issue.
SI Cover
'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 recalled of her clap back in 2022. '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.'
5 Olivia Dunne walks the runway at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Runway Show at W South Beach on May 31, 2025 in Miami Beach, Florida.
Getty Images
The New York Times story was published with the sub-headline, 'Female college athletes are making millions thanks to their large social media followings. But some who have fought for equity in women's sports worry that their brand-building is regressive.'
This isn't the first time Dunne has called out The New York Times publicly.
5 Olivia Dunne during her interview with the New York Post Sports in September 2024.
Brian Zak/NY Post
During an appearance on the 'Full Send Podcast' in 2023, Dunne called the piece 'complete BS,' and claimed the reporter 'was asking me very odd questions' in the phone interview.
'The interviewer called me and he was asking me very odd questions. It was worded quite weird,' Dunne said. 'He was like, 'So, how does it feel to be a small petite blonde gymnast doing so well with NIL?' I was just like, 'Why does it matter that I'm petite and blonde?' You can just ask me about NIL without you having to use these weird ways of saying it.'
5 Olivia Dunne attends the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Social Club Celebrates the Launch of the 2025 Issue at Moonlight Studios on May 17, 2025 in New York City.
Getty Images for Sports Illustrated
Dunne appeared in the SI Swimsuit issue for the third straight year in 2025, landing one of the four covers for the 2025 issue.
The New Jersey native shot on location in Bermuda, where she posed in a two-piece by Reina Olga.
She told McMahon that she shot the cover with a fractured kneecap suffered during her last season with LSU.
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