Livvy Dunne opens up on painful ankle injury that ended Olympic dreams
- - - Livvy Dunne opens up on painful ankle injury that ended Olympic dreams
Scooby Axson, USA TODAY July 18, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Former LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne says that an ankle injury derailed her chances at competing for the United States at the Olympics.
Dunne did compete for Team USA and made the junior national team, but when she was 16, she says an ankle injury called osteochondritis dissecans put those dreams on hold.
Osteochondritis dissecans causes the bone underneath the cartilage of a joint to fail because of a lack of blood flow and can hinder joint motion.
"I was actually competing on a hurt ankle at the 2018 USA Championships and, yeah, part of my ankle bone died. Dunne said on the podcast, "What’s Your Story? With Stephanie McMahon."
"Yeah, it just died. So, my Olympic dreams died with it," she said. "It kind of healed a little bit. It stopped bothering me. I went to college after that, but it was so painful. That was kind of my first real injuries.
"I’ve actually never gotten any surgery, which is kind of crazy for a gymnast. And I was like, I think if I just give myself time to heal, I can heal without surgery. But that’s something I take pride in. I have never needed surgery as a gymnast, which is very uncommon."
After helping the Tigers win the school's first-ever gymnastics national championship in 2024, Dunne, now 22, was limited by injuries in her final collegiate season before announcing her retirement from the sport in April.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Livvy Dunne says painful ankle injury ended her Olympic dreams
Source: “AOL Sports”
