Olivia McDonald was born on October 28 in Fuzhou, Jiangxi, China. She was adopted at three years old. Olivia currently lives in North Carolina with her mom, Maureen McDonald and a dog named Ming. Olivia is an honor student at Quaesitor Academy and she will graduate from high school in 2022. She earned awards in math and science. Olivia enjoys reading, drawing and spending time with her friends and family during her spare time.

Olivia started in ballet and transitioned to gymnastics when she was eight years old. She trained at Lakeshore Academy under coach Natalia Yurchenko (She later opened her own gym, C.I.T.Y. Club Gymnastics Club). In the summer of 2014, Olivia moved to Illinois Gymnastics Institute (IGI). When she was at IGI, she was the floor champion at the 2015 Level 7 State Championships. In 2016 as a level 8 gymnast, she earned a silver medal on balance beam with a 9.600 at the State Championships. She made Team Illinois for the Region 5 Championships. At Regionals, she finished second in the all-around with a 37.700, first on balance beam with a 9.500 and second on floor exercise scoring a 9.550.

In the summer of 2016, Olivia and her mom moved to North Carolina, so Olivia started training at Everest Gymnastics in Huntersville, NC. Olivia moved up to level 9 for the 2017 season where she finished third in the all-around with a 37.225 and first on balance beam (9.550) and floor exercise (9.575) at the Region 8 Championships. She qualified to the Level 9 Eastern Nationals in Lansing, MI. Olivia continued competing level 9 in 2018 where she finished first on balance beam and third on vault at the Region 8 Championships.

Olivia trains 27.5 hours per week at Everest Gymnastics in Huntersville, NC under coaches Yiwen Chen, Biyu Sun and Nikolai Cherchen. Olivia is working hard to qualify to the Junior Olympic Nationals every year. Her long-term goal is to obtain a Division I college gymnastics scholarship.