Less than two weeks after winning a silver medal at the 2024 Olympics, Simone Biles cheered on her husband, Bears safety Jonathan Owens, in a preseason game against the Bengals on Saturday.
Biles emerged from the tunnel and headed to the pregame sideline at Soldier Field wearing a jacket that appeared to depict Owens’ time with the Packers. Owens, 29, spent last season with the Bears’ rival team after four years with the Texans.
“How’s Chicago doing? Let’s cheer on the Bears,” Biles said. He said in a video posted to the NFL’s X account..
Biles won three gold medals in Paris – in the individual all-around, team all-around and vault – and finished second to Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade in the women’s floor exercise final, but she acknowledged her body was “gradually declining” towards the end of the Olympics.
She was worried about a calf injury during the Olympics and wore a walking boot that she said was “precautionary” in an interview with NBC after the floor exercise final, and Biles also wore a boot on her left foot during Saturday’s match against the Bears.
“It was awesome to see her overcome that and go out there and still dominate,” Owens told reporters on Aug. 7. According to ESPN:“My wife is a warrior. I liken this to the world of football: when she limps along, it hurts at first, but as soon as she starts walking she forgets about it. The strength to bear the pain, she walks out onto the pitch with grace and the people around her had no idea what was going on.”
The Bears allowed Owens to miss training camp and fly to Paris to watch Biles compete in the Olympics, and at one point, Owens wore a white shirt with “BILES” and a picture of the Team USA star gymnast printed on the front, she said.
Biles and Owen got engaged in February 2022 and married the following year.
Owens, listed as a backup safety on the Bears’ unofficial roster, had five tackles through the first half of Saturday’s game, helping hold Cincinnati, which was without star quarterback Joe Burrow, scoreless through the first 30 minutes.
He began his NFL career as an undrafted free agent, but eventually signed a two-year, $4.75 million contract with the Bears on March 12, the first multi-year contract of his career, according to Spotrac.
