By Animesh Pandey

Copyright sportskeeda

Olivia Dunne recently made a heartfelt appeal to her Instagram followers on behalf of her boyfriend, Paul Skenes. The baseball pitcher recently completed his second season for the Pittsburgh Pirates.Paul Skenes was recently nominated for the prestigious Robert Clemente Award, which is given annually by the organizers of Major League Baseball to the best baseball player overall. Olivia Dunne shared a clip from the official Instagram page of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are campaigning for Paul Skenes.The official Instagram page of the Pittsburgh Pirates wrote in the caption of their post,”‘There’s never enough we can do, but we have to start somewhere.’ Vote Paul the 2025 Roberto Clemente Award winner” View this post on Instagram Instagram PostOlivia Dunne called out to her fans on her Instagram story to vote for Paul in large numbers. She has more than 5.4 million followers on Instagram alone, and hopes to see maximum turnout for Paul Skenes.Screengrab of Olivia Dunne’s appeal for boyfriend Paul Skenes [Image Source : Olivia Dunne’s Instagram]For the uninitiated, Olivia Dunne’s boyfriend, Paul Skenes, had joined the Pittsburgh Pirates as a pitcher in the 2024 MLB season. Previously, he represented the LSU Tigers and the Air Force Falcons as a pitcher in collegiate sports.When Olivia Dunne opened up on leaving elite gymnastics for collegiate gymnasticsOlivia Dunne talks about leaving elite gymnastics [Image Source: Getty] Olivia Dunne once talked about pursuing collegiate gymnastics over elite gymnastics. Like every other American gymnast, the former LSU gymnast also aimed for the Olympics, though recurring injuries prevented her from doing so. In her appearance for the podcast session on ‘What’s your Story?’ with Steph McMahon in July 2025, Dunne remarked, “I used to compete for Team USA, I feel like not a lot of people actually know that. I don’t talk about it too much because in some people’s lives it was a pretty dark time because of the Karoli Ranch and those things that came along with USA Gymnastics at the time.” [2:36 onwards]The gymnast turned influencer further added, “But, I mean, it was just not the right environment for me, and I kept getting hurt, you know what? I’m going to go enjoy the sport again in college, go to LSU, heal up and enjoy and love the sport.”Olivia Dunne had made her collegiate debut for the LSU Tigers in the 2020-21 season. She led the LSU Tigers to their maiden NCAA Gymnastics Championships title in the 2024 season, before retiring from collegiate gymnastics in April 2025.