The country's most-famous collegiate gymnast has been mysteriously absent from competing in her team's last two meets — and fans are beginning to worry why.
Despite LSU gymnast and social media superstar Olivia Dunne starting her senior season off strong last month — when she produced a dazzling 9.875 score during her floor debut — Dunne hasn't performed in LSU's two most recent meets. The last of those was a 197.325-to-197.225 loss to Missouri on Friday night.
While Dunne was seen present and supporting her team for that Friday match — which coach Jay Clark called a "disappointing result" — fans are wondering why Dunne wasn't given the chance to be a difference-maker on the mat.
There hasn't been any official explanation from Dunne, Clark or anyone else as to why we haven't seen the gymnastics icon perform in recent weeks. However, the comments section of one of Dunne's most recent TikTok posts alludes to a potentially alarming explanation.
Under a video of Dunne flipping her way through an LSU gym practice, one user wrote, "We better be seeing a double layout in ur routine by the end of the season miss."
To which Dunne replied, "I just pray my body stays in one piece til the end of szn."
So there we have it: Dunne is likely dealing with some sort of injury, which has probably been the reason why she hasn't competed in her team's recent meets.
Then again, if Dunne is out due to injury, it seems strange that LSU would not have made that known.
Perhaps it's because they know that many fans who attend LSU meets are there in order to see Dunne perform, so ruling her out of competition prior to a match would likely mean much fewer ticket sales.
Regardless of why Dunne hasn't been competing, her team needs some sort of spark if they're to return to last season's form. LSU's next match is at home on Friday, Feb. 2, against an unranked Arkansas squad. Hopefully, Dunne will return to the mat for that one — both for the fans' sake and to help her team.
