Olivia Dunne: A Duality Of Athleticism And Stardom

The outfit is constructed of specific, deliberate pieces. A jacket with satin lapels, cut to hang open. High-waisted cigarette pants. The effect is one of androgyny, a borrowed silhouette from menswear, but the intention is something else. There is no shirt. The space between the two garments is the focal point, displaying a midsection that is the product of a particular kind of life.

It is a body shaped by the balance beam and the uneven bars, now presented under the manufactured lights of a media event.

She stands before a wall branded with the MTV logo. In some frames, she is alone, her smile fixed for the cameras. In another, she is captured in a hotel room, poised by a large window that looks out onto a city.

It is a quieter moment, yet it is still a performance, composed and shared. The location changes, but the subject remains the same: a young woman navigating the strange duality of her existence. One moment, she is a collegiate athlete subject to the rigorous, unglamorous demands of her sport. The next, she is a personality, a brand ambassador for Vuori clothing, her image curated for mass consumption.

The caption she writes is brief, almost a transaction. "@vmas suited me well."

A Different Uniform

Earlier, at the start of summer, another photograph was released. It announced a different sort of arrival. In Bermuda, she wore a tiger-print bathing suit. A baseball cap was pulled low. This was for *Sports Illustrated*, a publication with its own history and set of expectations.

The body that was presented in a tailored suit at an awards show was now presented in near entirety on a beach. The caption for this moment was not coolly detached. It was effusive, a burst of youthful disbelief. "I AM A SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SWIM COVER MODEL! Somebody pinch me!"

It is a curious trajectory. The discipline required of a gymnast is immense, an internal and often isolating pursuit of physical perfection for the sake of points and medals.

That same body then becomes a canvas for public appraisal in entirely different arenas. The strength developed for athletic function is rebranded as aesthetic appeal. A like appears on her post from Nastia Liukin, an Olympic gymnast from a previous era who understands this transition. It is a small, digital gesture of recognition, a note passed between two people who have lived within the confines of the same demanding world.

A Shared Frame

Amid the collection of carefully posed images, there is one where she stands with her sister.

The posture is slightly different, the smile perhaps less practiced. It is a small fissure in the otherwise seamless presentation of a public-facing life. This photograph offers a glimpse of a relationship that exists beyond the sponsorships and the follower counts. It is a reminder of a private world that hums along quietly, just outside the frame of the camera.

The eighty thousand likes accumulate overnight, each one a small, anonymous signal of approval for the version of herself she has chosen to share.