Bears to excuse Jonathan Owens from training camp during wife Simone Biles’ Olympics events, per report

When the Chicago Bears start training camp later this month, they’re likely to be without one of their veteran offseason additions, according to USA Today, with safety Jonathan Owens set to attend the 2024 Summer Olympics, where his wife, Simone Biles, is slated for competition in the Paris Games.

“The Bears are actually granting him a couple days off from training camp, so he’ll be there, yes,” Biles said this week, when asked about Owens’ potential attendance. “For just a short little time. … Anytime we can show up for one another in 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 in support.”

The Bears are scheduled to open training camp on July 23, just three days before the Olympics’ Opening Ceremony in Paris. Biles, who is widely considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time with seven career Olympic medals, has a qualifying event July 28 alongside the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, with a subsequent final July 30. The all-around women’s final will be held Aug. 1, as USA Today reported.

Biles and Owens were engaged in 2022 and married in 2023. This year’s Olympic Games will mark the first time they’ve attended a major international competition together, per USA Today, as family and friends weren’t permitted at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics due to COVID restrictions.

Owens, 28, just signed with the Bears this spring following a one-year stint with the Green Bay Packers. Originally undrafted out of Missouri Western in 2018, the St. Louis native spent four seasons with the Houston Texans from 2019-2022, emerging as a full-time starter to log a career-high 125 tackles in his final year there. He also appeared prominently as a special teams player in Green Bay.