Simone Biless husband, Jonathan Owens, excused from training camp

Jonathan Owens, a Chicago Bears backup safety, is officially excused from training camp for a very good reason. He will be in Paris to cheer for his wife, legendary gymnast Simone Biles, in the Olympic Games.

Missing training camp is frowned upon in the NFL world, but there was no question that the Bears would grant Owens a brief absence. “Just because we respect the Olympics,” Coach Matt Eberflus told reporters. “That is a big deal. And he’s just supporting the one he loves the most. And I think that’s so cool that he gets to do that. We welcome that, and it’s going to be awesome. Go USA.”

Owens signed with the Bears as a free agent in March after previous stints with the Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers. The 29-year-old has been cleared to miss seven Bears practices from July 29 to Aug. 3, which would cover gymnastics team competition and the Aug. 3 vault final. He would miss the Aug. 4-5 uneven bars, floor and balance beam finals unless he is given an extension.

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“I just love getting to watch her in her environment,” Owens told USA Today in June. “Seeing her locked in, it’s just amazing to see. She goes up there and does it, every freaking time. Surpasses what she’s supposed to do. I love that.”

Biles has won seven medals (four golds in the 2016 Rio Games, a silver and two bronze) in her previous two Olympics and, as the reigning U.S. all-around champion, is favored to win more in Paris. For the first time since their 2023 wedding, she’ll have her husband cheering for her in an Olympics, just as she has done for him during his NFL career.

“It’s amazing. I think it’s super exciting that we get to be in each other’s elements and supporting each other’s dreams and goals,” Biles said during the Olympic Trials. “It’s these memories that we make that we’ll never get back. So anytime we can show up for one another and support, we just get super excited because our schedules don’t align that much. So whenever it does, it’s really important for the both of us to show up and support.”

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Owens brings a certain nerdiness to the competition, according to Biles, and broadcast cameras showed him taking notes.

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“So my parents, since they were younger, they always have the scoresheets out there. And my mom and dad, they never used to display scores like everybody, so they would like to take the notes and scores of every athlete,” Biles said. “And at the last meet, Jonathan saw my parents doing it. And he was like, ‘Where’d you get that? I need one of those.’ Because whenever he learns about something, he wants to really dive in.

“And he’s kind of a nerd in that aspect in the best way. So if he’s going to learn about gymnastics, he’s going to learn about it. So that’s what he was doing was keeping score of everybody and adding it up and stuff like that.”

Emily Giambalvo contributed to this report.

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