Simone Biles slams critics who complained about her husband wearing her gold medal
The gymnast responded to users who slammed Jonathan Owens for wearing her gold medal.
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Simone Biles has flipped the script on critics criticizing her husband, Jonathan Owens, for sharing a photo of himself wearing one of her gold medals.
The 27-year-old gymnast is taking on social media critics who lambasted a post shared by her husband on Instagram. The photo showed Owens wearing her Olympic gold medal around his neck, prompting accusations that the NFL athlete was stealing the spotlight from his wife.
Read on for the controversy.
What did Simone Biles’ husband do at the Olympics?
On July 31, Owens shared an Instagram post featuring him alongside his wife. The celebratory post included a caption from Owens congratulating his wife on becoming Olympic’s most decorated American gymnast.
“Witnessing history every time you step on the mat,” his caption reads. “Congrats, baby, on becoming the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history!!!! Just wow!!!! 8 of them!!!!! So thankful I was there to see it.”
In the post’s comments section, users were quick to cheer on Biles for her win, while others took issue with Owens for wearing the gold medal that the gymnast and her team had won earlier that day around his neck.
“Why he holding it like he won it,” one user wrote.
“Mr. Simone Biles, if you don’t give that woman back her medal like (be for real),” one added.
The criticism against Owens continued on TikTok. In a post that has since received nearly 500K comments, internet personality Kiera Breaugh also chimed into the discourse.
“Take her medal off!” Breaugh says in the video. “After all of the— take her medal off! Was it you, Mr. Simone Biles, who was flying through the air yesterday? Was it you who spun like a top 30 times in the air and landed without stumbling? No.”
“You were taking notes in the audience, and I thought that was cute. I was gonna give him a pass,” she said, referring to how cameras captured Owens taking detailed notes of his wife’s score and performance throughout the Olympic competitions, showing his support and dedication. “I thought him keeping score the audience was kind of cute. I was gonna take it easy on him.”
“Why is her medal around your neck? For the picture. For the picture that you post after— We’ve learned nothing. What a choice. What a choice,” she continued.
“Let her wear the medal for the picture that you post,” Breaugh concluded. “After everything that’s gone on, that could be a pretty simple PR move. He’s like, ‘This is my only time to wear a gold medal around my neck, so I guess I’ll just take this chance now. Not like I already got made fun of by the entire internet for trying to overshadow my wife and undermine her accomplishments.’”
