Jonathan Owens Praises Olympian Simone Biles for Being the Better Athlete

The athletic power couple also revealed who is the better cook and who has the superior sense of style.

Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens / Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Olympic gymnast Simone Biles started off the year on a high note, as she was named SI’s Sportsperson of the Year, joining a class of elite athletes like Breanna Stewart, Naomi Osaka, Megan Rapinoe and Serena Williams, who have claimed the title in previous years.

While on the red carpet for the 2024 Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Awards in Las Vegas on Jan. 7, Biles and her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, chatted with Sports Illustrated, where they answered a series of rapid fire questions about their relationship.

When asked who was the better athlete, Owens, 29, did not hesitate to point to his partner. Biles, an 11-time Olympic medalist, giggled while the NFL player candidly stated “I’m not doing no backflips.”

.@Simone_Biles and @jjowens_3 didn't hesitate with these answers 😆 pic.twitter.com/P7uxfhii8e

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 17, 2025

Biles, 27, admitted that Owens is the better cheerleader because he “knows more and really pays attention.” Meanwhile, she said she “lose[s] track of of the game” after the first half. The pair agreed that Biles is the better cook and responds to text messages quicker, while the Houston native praised her husband for his sense of style. “I just wear sweats,” she joked with a grimace.

The athletic power couple started dating in early 2020 and tied the knot (twice!) in 2023. They married in a small courthouse ceremony before hosting a larger ceremony for friends and family in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in May of that year. Biles and Owens are each other’s biggest cheerleaders, always on the sidelines and in the stands of one another’s games and meets.

The three-time Olympian first competed in the 2016 games in Rio, and most recently was part of the gold medal-winning women’s U.S. gymnastics team in Paris during last summer’s Olympics. And as the most decorated gymnast in history, Biles’s title as SI’s Sportsperson of the Year should come as no surprise.

“I don’t think the reality has set in of what I’ve exactly done in the sport,” Biles told Sports Illustrated of her legacy. “I can see it, and I hear it from people, and I see a glimpse of it, but the full magnitude I don’t think I’ve realized just yet. I don’t think I’ll realize ’til maybe I retire and look back in a couple years like, Damn, she was good. Because I can see that, but I do it every day. So for me, it’s normal.”