Simone Biles won her first Gold of the 2024 Olympics, but it was made all the sweeter as her husband, Jonathan Owens, traveled across the world to see her do what she does best.
The Chicago Bears football star took to Instagram to share a photo of himself from the plane, captioned: “Coming for you baby” with a blue heart emoji and a plane emoji as he threw up a peace sign casually.
Simone re-shared the photo to her story with a number of fingers crossed emojis as well as emotional watery-eyed ones too, as if words couldn’t express how excited she was to have him watch her perform on the world stage.
Her husband saw her perform as the final athlete on the day; she ended her routine with a full-twisting front flip through to a double-double, before following it up with her original namesake skill, a double layout with a half twist.
She performed another double layout to finish, and despite falling outside of the floor lines twice the score was high enough to overtake Team GB, who had been sitting in third place.
Their total was 171.296, a solid six points above second place finishers Italy; Brazil came third winning its first Olympic medal in the sport ever.
Jonathan wasn’t expected to watch Simone at the Olympics, as training camp begins for the next NFL season.
As she shared birthday wishes with her husband, who turned 29 on July 22, Simone said that she wished she “was there to celebrate you, but I’ll see you soon!!! XO”.
Fortunately, the Bears safety was allowed excused absences from July 29 to August 3, so that he could go watch his wife compete in the international event.
His coach, Matt Eberflus, told ESPN that he was allowing Jonathan’s absence “just because we respect the Olympics.”
That is a big deal, and he’s just supporting the one he loves the most,” the coach said. “And I think that’s so cool that he gets to do that. We welcome that and it’s going to be awesome. Go U.S.A
Jonathan’s trip across to Paris will only be fleeting, as he is expected to return to practice on August 4. But there is no doubt that Simone will appreciate his presence, along with her 17 other family members, including her sister Adria and parents Ronald and Nellie.
