Hollywood is full of “power couples,” famous celebrities who are either dating or married to each other. Pro sports has seen far fewer. While pairings of sports figures with entertainment celebs are relatively common â the most famous current example being pop megastar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce â couples in which both partners are professional or big-time college athletes are much more rare.
But there are several prominent sports power couples. Retired Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and World Cup-winning USA Women’s Soccer star Mia Hamm have been married since 2003, Garciaparra’s final full season in Boston.
Record-setting Olympic gymnast Simone Biles met Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens on the dating app Raya in 2021. The couple tied the knot two years later.
Boston Celtics 16-year NBA veteran point guard Jrue Holiday and his wife, Lauren Chaney Holiday, met while both were star athletes at UCLA â he on the basketball team while she played soccer. They have been married since 2013. Jrue has gone on to be part of two NBA championship teams, the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021 and the Celtics in 2024. He was also a key member of the gold medal-winning USA Men’s Basketball team at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Lauren went on to play for the U.S. Women’s National Team which won a World Cup in 2015 and Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012.
Skenes and Dunne: Sports’ Newest Power Couple
Those are a few examples â but the latest sports power couple burst on the scene in 2023 and is reaching new heights of success in 2025. That would be Pittsburgh Pirates pitching phenom Paul Skenes, the MLB overall No. 1 draft pick in 2023, and Olivia Dunne, better known by her nickname Livvy, a national champion collegiate gymnast at LSU.
That school is where she met Skenes â and where Skenes pitched for the national championship baseball team, earning Most Outstanding Player honors in the 2023 College World Series.
Dunne, who is now a grad student at LSU competing in her fifth and final year of NCAA eligibility, has become perhaps the most famous gymnast in the country other than Biles, largely thanks to her lucrative endorsement deals and social media presence.
Skenes is entering his second MLB season after winning National League Rookie of the Year and starting the All-Star game for the NL squad in 2024. But Skenes, remarkably, is still improving as a pitcher. In his first start of 2025 spring training he unveiled a new pitch in his arsenal, a cut fastball to go with his 100 mph four-seam fastball, as well as a changeup, curve ball, sinker and slider.
The cutter was an immediate success, being dubbed “nasty” by Bleacher Report. For that matter, MLB Network Radio also used the term “nasty” to describe the new Skenes pitch, as did SI.com.
Dunne Says She Taught Skenes ‘Nasty’ Pitch
So where did Skenes learn this “nasty” new addition to his mound repertoire? According to his gymnast gal-pal â from her.
“I taught him that,” Dunne posted Wednesday on her Instagram Reels.
She added the remark, which was made presumably in jest (but who knows?), to a video of Skenes throwing the cutter to a Baltimore Orioles batter in Saturday’s spring training game. The result? A swing and a miss.
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