Olivia Dunne says fiery response to The New York Times 'hit piece' led to Sports Illustrated Swimsuit slot

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In November 2022, LSU gymnast and Olivia Dunne fired back at The New York Times after they published a column with the headline, "New Endorsements for College Athletes Resurface an Old Concern: Sex Sells." The cover photo was Dunne in her LSU leotard. 

But what we didn’t know until now was that Dunne’s courage to speak up against the column, where she posted the same photo to her Instagram Stories and wrote "Is this too much?" while tagging the publication, landed her spot in Sports Illustrated’s coveted Swimsuit Edition for this year. 

Dunne’s social media presence, which includes a whopping 7.6 million on TikTok and 4.2 million on Instagram, grows by the day. It’s led her to numerous opportunities to profit thanks to NIL deals, which has made her one of the highest-grossing college athletes in the country. 

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Olivia Dunne attends the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue launch at Hard Rock Hotel on May 18, 2023, in New York City. (Taylor Hill/WireImage)

Those deals were the premise behind The Times reaching out to Dunne for an interview, which she agreed to. Little did she know the publication had another angle they wanted to write about. 

"[The New York Times] wrote a hit piece about me," Dunne said on the "Full Send Podcast" recently. "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.’"

Dunne appeared to be excited for the interview, but was a bit taken aback by the questions the interviewer had when they