LSU gymnast and social media sensation Olivia Dunne is asking her many fans to be more respectful as they congregate outside meets waiting for her.
On Sunday, Dunne tweeted, "I will always appreciate and love the support from you guys, but if you come to a meet, I want to ask you to please be respectful of the other gymnasts and the gymnastics community as we are just doing our job❤️"
Dunne's tweet was referencing a crowd of fans, many of them teenage boys, who congregated outside a recent meet against Utah at Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
According to Yahoo Sports, Utah sports writer Josh Furlong live-tweeted during the meet on Friday night. "There's a group of fans that keep chanting "Livvy,"he tweeted, before noting that Dunne "is the most followed college athlete on social media". Her name, image, likeness value is also said to be near $2.7 million.
Although a Dunne did not compete on Sunday, a large group of boys were hoping to meet the famed gymnast after the meet.
"There's literally a line outside of the Huntsman Center of teenage boys that keep asking if "Livvy" is coming out. I've never seen anything like this," Furlong tweeted.
Police eventually had to intervene and the LSU bus had to be moved so LSU gymnasts could avoid the throng.
Sports broadcaster Samantha Peszek shared footage of teenage boys yelling obscenities as she left the arena.
"This is actually so scary and disturbing and cringey. I'm embarrassed for them…," she tweeted.
Olympic medalist Kathy Johnson Clarke, who was also in attendance, responded to Peszek's tweet.
"I was walking about behind you, Sam, and they were screaming to me, "Are you Livvy's mom? Are you Livvy's mom?" Very disturbing. Creepy, actually," she wrote, later adding that the moment could serve as a "teachable moment" for the boys.
Mother of Utah gymnast Jillian Hoffman also witnessed the crowd and was disturbed by what she saw.
"I am a mother of a Utah gymnast, as we were walking to the car the group swarmed my daughter and her teammate," she wrote. "They literally said to their faces, you are not Livvy but you will do, can we get a picture. [The group] also called my daughter Livvy 2.0. They were so rude and disrespectful. It was very hard for mama bear not to come out."
