Wong, Dunne are different kinds of winners
Of the 8.1 billion people on Earth, Olivia Dunne might be the last one you should feel sorry for. She's young, attractive, rich, famous, smart, influential, attractive and attractive.
Did I mention she's attractive?
That point is made obvious daily to Dunne's 8.09 billion or so followers on social media.
Yes, the LSU gymnastics star is a phenomenon worthy of awe and admiration.
She's just no Leanne Wong.
I bring that up due to a silly headline heralding last Friday night's meet between LSU and Florida - “Olivia Dunne vs. Leanne Wong: LSU Gears Up for Epic Battle Against Florida University.”
It appeared on the Essentially Sports website, which bills itself as “the fan's perspective.” If your perspective is that of the average 16-year-old male, everything Dunne does is indeed “epic.”
If you know anything about gymnastics, you knew Wong vs. Dunne would be a blowout. Wong led the fifth-ranked Gators to a come-from-behind win over the No. 2 Tigers at a pulsating O'Connell Center.
She capped the night with a perfect 10.0 on floor. Her all-around score of 39.875 is the best in the nation.
Dunne did not even compete.
She's had ankle woes and other nagging pains. But even at her best, Dunne has as much chance of outperforming Wong as I do.
OK, that's a bit harsh. Dunne's a bona fide college gymnast, better at flipping and tumbling than 99.9% of humanity. But her career-best score is a 9.85 in floor, and she rarely even competes in the three other events.
Despite that, Dunne is by far the greatest gymnast in one very meaningful metric. Her On3.com NIL valuation is $3.5 million, which is probably at least 10 times higher than Wong's.
If you think that's not fair, welcome to reality. Just look at the top four NIL valuations.
Bronny James averages 5.5 points a game for a bad USC team, but we all know who his father is. Shedeur Sanders (4.7 million) is a legit QB at Colorado, but we also all know his dad. Arch Manning ($2.8 million) has two career completions, but he reportedly comes from a famous football family.
Companies don't care about scoring averages or completion percentages. They just want to move product. That depends on an athlete's prominence, not their actual performance.
If you find this new NIL frontier bothersome, you can take heart that Dunne has done it the old-fashioned way. There's always been a market for blonde bombshells.
Her autographed leotards resell for $1,000. Inquiring eBay minds ask, “Do gymnasts typically wear underwear with these?”
Dunne's caught the requisite flak for selling sex, not sports. She told the “Today” show, “As a woman, you are not responsible for how a man looks at you and objectifies you.”
Just how does she expect men to react to the million or so online photos of her pouting seductively in a bikini? Livvy Fever reached critical mass last season in Utah.
LSU's team bus needed police protection from a hormonal mob of teenage boys. None knew a Yurchenko from a yak, but they knew Dunne might be on the bus.
I'm somewhat disappointed to report there was no mob scene at the O'Dome. Dunne could only cheer mightily for her teammates, but Florida was sizzling. Wong's 10.0 on floor gave her a career “Gym Slam,” meaning she has a perfect score in every event.
Only 14 other NCAA gymnasts had done that. Dunne makes more for one sponsored Instagram post than most of them made in their careers.
Good for her. Dunne didn't invent the system; she just works it better than anybody.
But you wonder if she doesn't feel a tad guilty making so many bucks without providing much actual gymnastics bang. To her credit, she started the “Livvy Fund” to help educate female athletes at LSU on business and marketing.
“She is incredibly down to earth,” teammate Aleah Finnegan said. “And she's one of the nicest people to actually talk to.”
I wanted to, but LSU doesn't let gymnasts be interviewed if they don't compete. I wanted to ask her what it was like being Livvy Dunne.
More to the point, I wanted to ask how much Livvy Dunne wished she could be like Leanne Wong.
For all her fame and fortune, Dunne didn't start training at age 3 dreaming of one day becoming the Queen of NIL. She hasn't spent countless hours in the gym just to rack up TikTok followers.
As she boarded the bus, all Dunne had to show for the night was another leotard some voyeur could buy on eBay. Meanwhile, Wong was beaming as she posed for pictures by a scoreboard. It read “10.0.”
There's no reason to feel sorry for Dunne. But some things all the NIL money in the world just can't buy.
David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun’s sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DavidEWhitley