Simone Biles and her husband, Jonathan Owens, may both excel at their respective sports, but when it comes to who’s the best athlete in the relationship, Biles has her husband’s vote.
Biles and Owens answered a series of couples questions in a video posted to X on Jan. 16. Right out of the gate, the interviewer wanted to know if either Owens, a safety for the Chicago Bears, or Biles, the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast in history, was the superior athlete.
Without hesitating, Owens pointed to Biles, joking, “I’m not doing no back flips,” prompting his wife to laugh.
Biles was recognized as Sports Illustrated’s 2024 Sportsperson of the Year and received the award at a ceremony in Las Vegas on Jan. 7.
Owens’ answer comes more than a year after Biles answered the same question during a December 2023 appearance on Peacock’s “Back That Year Up.”
“I think we’re good at our own sports,” Biles told comedian co-hosts Kenan Thompson and Kevin Hart. However, Biles went on to say that she and Owens, who tied the knot in April 2023, have debated the subject themselves.
“We’ve tried to pin each other against one another on, like, difficulty, ability and all that stuff. So, at the end of the day, gymnastics is harder, if he agrees or not,” Biles said.
Hart then asked Biles if the debate over her and Owens’ athletic ability had ever turned into a “household fight.”
“We fought over it a couple of times, and then we vowed once we got married, we wouldn’t talk about it again,” Biles replied. “But it keeps coming up every time.”
Biles added, “He has done my workout in the gym, and he could barely do it, and then I went to their NFL workout, and I crushed it.”
Owens previously caught flack for implying that he was “the catch” in the couple’s relationship when he appeared on “The Pivot” podcast in December 2023. The NFL star was also blasted for telling the podcast’s hosts that he had no idea who Biles was when the pair first matched on the dating app Raya in 2020.
The following year, Biles defended Owens during an episode of her Netflix docuseries “Simone Biles Rising,” explaining that his comments on “The Pivot” were “taken out of context.”
While describing the “mental toll” the backlash took on her, Biles recounted how her fans instantly became “Jonathan’s biggest haters,” posting negative comments about him on her social media posts.
“Who’s going to go to somebody’s (social media) profile and say who you can and can’t love? That’s just ridiculous,” Biles said.
Gina Vivinetto is a writer for TODAY.com.