Olivia Dunne Says Other LSU Gymnasts ‘Deserve’ NIL Success ‘Just as Much’ as She Does (Exclusive)

Gymnastics will become the first LSU women’s sports to receive the opportunities from her new initiative with Accelerator Energy

Gymnast Olivia Dunne became the highest-paid NCAA female athlete this year, and now the 21-year-old Louisiana State University star is helping other female athletes secure lucrative deals with brands.

Dunne's Livvy Fund — which first launched in July — announced a new partnership with Accelerator Active Energy on Tuesday, revealing that the brand will be the first to do NIL deals with athletes through the fund. Additionally, eight LSU gymnastic athletes will become Accelerator ambassadors, the brand said in a statement to PEOPLE.

"I've been fortunate enough to have all these different opportunities with NIL and to have experience because it could be very foreign to other athletes at the start of it," Dunne tells PEOPLE. "So, I just wanted to help other women and give them opportunities to learn and have more NIL deals because they deserve it just as much as I do."

Dunne's net worth was at an estimated $3.5 million in July, according to the On3 NIL 100 list. She became the top-earning NCAA female athlete after the NCAA agreed to the new Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) policy in July 2021, allowing student-athletes to accept sponsorship deals.

Related: Gymnast Olivia Dunne Makes Her 'SI Swimsuit' Debut: 'I Can Be Strong and Sexy' (Exclusive)

The brand says Dunne, whose NIL deals include American Eagle and Motorola, selected gymnastics as the first of the LSU women's sports to benefit from the partnership during her senior year at the university.

Accelerator Active Energy’s stacked roster of brand ambassadors includes Travis Kelce, Aaron Judge, Jalen Hurts and Tunde Oyeneyin. Through Dunne's initiative, the eight gymnasts selected as Accelerator ambassadors are Ashley Cowan, Jillian Hoffman, Konnor McClain, Chase Brock, KJ Johnson, Haleigh Bryant, Sierra Ballard and Kiya Johnson.

Related: Olivia Dunne Is the Highest-Paid NCAA Female Athlete — and Wants 'Equal Opportunities for Men and Women'

Dunne says LSU has "helped so much throughout NIL after the rule changed" and that the school even has an entire department dedicated to helping their student-athletes navigate NIL deals.

"They've been nothing but supportive, so I figured I'd give back to the school and the program that has helped me so much," Dunne says of her experience at LSU.

The university has also seen success with basketball star Angel Reese, who also became one of the top-earning college athletes with an estimated $1.3 million in endorsement deals this year. Reese, 21, has secured NIL deals with brands, such as Coach, McDonald's and Amazon.

Entering her senior year at LSU, Dunne tells PEOPLE she's looking forward to "competing" this season with one major goal in mind: "Winning the National Championship," she says.

"It's never been done at LSU before. It's unprecedented territory for LSU gymnastics," Dunne explains, adding, "I am so excited for one last go around and hopefully make it my best one yet."

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The All-American gymnast already had a massive following on social media from her years in the sport.

Dunne began training at age 3, became the youngest USA International Elite gymnast at 11 years old and won gold with the USA Junior National Team in 2017. By age 16, she was up to 100,000 Instagram followers, and her TikTok soared in views when the pandemic hit in 2020.

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Read the original article on People.