Jonathan Owens may not be participating in the 2024 Olympics, but he will be in Paris for the Summer Games
The Bears are permitting Owens — a backup safety and special teams ace who the team signed away from the Packers in 2024 free agency — to miss a week's worth of training camp practices to travel to France.
While unusual, Chicago does have a good reason for excusing Owens from action. His wife, Simone Biles, is set to compete at what may be her final Olympics and is expected to be a strong gold-medal contender across all her gymnastics events.
Here's what to know about Owens' absence and why the Bears are allowing it early in the team's preparation for the 2024 NFL season.
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Why are the Bears letting Jonathan Owens go to the Olympics?
The Bears are excusing Owens from a week's worth of training camp practices so he can watch his wife, Simone Biles, compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Biles is participating in her third Olympic competition and is considered by many to be the greatest gymnast of all time. The 27-year-old is expected to contend for medals in the team competition, the all-around competition and on each of the four individual apparatuses on which women gymnasts compete at the Summer Games.
Biles will participate in qualifying for each event Sunday, July 28. Owens will arrive Monday, July 29, and stay through Saturday, Aug. 3. That will allow him to see Biles compete in the team final, the all-around final and the vault final before he heads back to Chicago.
Owens will miss seven days of training camp practices because of the Olympics. He also won't be available to play in Chicago's Aug.1 preseason game, when the Bears take on the Texans in the 2024 Hall of Fame Game.
Even so, the Bears have no qualms about allowing him to support his family, especially at a big-time event like the Olympics.
"Just because we respect the Olympics," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said when asked about Owens' absence, per ESPN. "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."
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How long have Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens been together?
Biles and Owens first met on the celebrity dating app Raya in March 2020. Before that, Owens was admittedly unaware of the then-four-time Olympic gold medalist's existence.
"I didn’t know who she was," Owens said in an interview with Texas Monthly in June 2021. "I just hadn’t heard of her, and when I told her that, that’s one of the things she liked."
Thus began a long-term relationship that culminated with Biles and Owens tying the knot in April 2023.
MORE: Full timeline of Simone Biles' relationship with Jonathan Owens
Despite their years-long connection, Owens has never seen Biles compete at the Olympics live. He was focused on earning a roster spot and job during the 2021 Tokyo Games, which had limited attendance anyway.
Now, thanks to the Bears, he will get at least one chance to do that as his wife's storied Olympic career continues.
