By Brian Richards | Social Media | May 22, 2024 |
By Brian Richards | Social Media | May 22, 2024 |
Simone Biles is one of the greatest gymnasts on the planet, if not the greatest gymnast. Since she first began competing in 2011 at the American Classic to when she returned to competing in 2023 after she withdrew because of her experience with “the twisties,” Simone’s career has been magnificent in every sense of the word. She has won a total of thirty-seven Olympic and World Championship medals, has broken the record for winning the most World Championship medals in gymnastics, and also broke a 90-year-old title record in U.S. Gymnastics when she won her eighth title. This past weekend, Simone performed a floor routine at the U.S. Classic, where she executed the Biles II, her signature move, and did so to Taylor Swift’s “…Ready For It,” which earned raves from both the crowd and the commentators.
Simone Biles entertains the crowd with a superb floor routine! ✨
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) May 19, 2024
📺 @cnbc & @peacock | #CoreClassic pic.twitter.com/uNujoJfjE0
However, this wasn’t the only reason why people were recently talking about Simone Biles on social media. Ever since Simone’s husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, was interviewed on The Pivot podcast last year, and said that he had no idea who Simone was when he saw her on the dating app Raya because he wasn’t familiar with gymnastics, and when he seemingly suggested that he was the “catch” in their relationship (“I always say that men are the catch”)? There has been a growing backlash against Jonathan for what appears to be disrespectful and unsupportive behavior towards Simone, and for acting as if neither she nor her professional accomplishments were worth praising and acknowledging.
It has even reached the point of some people saying that Simone is the more well-known and talented athlete in their marriage, and even saying that they had no idea who he was, or what he did for a living until it was publicly announced that they were together, even referring to him only as “Mr. Simone Biles” and “Simone Biles’ husband.” After Simone finished performing her routine at the U.S. Classic and received a kiss from Jonathan, there were some comments that couldn’t help but take shots at Jonathan to let him and the world know that Pepperidge Farm remembers, which is why they’re still giving him side-eye for how he has spoken about her.
Simone has spoken before about how she found the online commentary about the interview humorous at first, but soon found it hurtful when people began insisting that she needs to hit Jonathan with divorce papers because he ain’t sh-t. She also tweeted this last year when she first saw all of the Twitter discourse about the interview, and about what Jonathan said about her and their relationship.
Simone finally had enough of what social media had to say about Jonathan, and about their marriage, and posted this as her Instagram Story this past Sunday.
For those who are unable to read the text in this photo of Simone’s Instagram Story, it reads:“I’m going to quickly address this, the joke was never a joke! Y’all are blatantly being disrespectful to my relationship and my husband. So I’m gonna go ahead and say this one time. Respectfully, f-ck off. If you keep commenting or tweeting at me, I’m just going to block you. Simple as that.
And no, I don’t need to touch grass or whatever tf y’all suggest…
@ everyone else who supports us, we love y’all so much.”
The last sentence has a brown, dark-skinned heart-hands emoji right next to it.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that people on social media had a lot to say about what Simone posted. Some people feel that Simone isn’t the one who is actually pissed at what is being said about Jonathan, but that it’s Jonathan himself who is pissed, and doesn’t like being seen and treated as if his name and career means nothing. They also saw this as yet another example of a man wanting to be with a “bad bitch” until he actually gets with a bad bitch, and because his ego can’t handle the world possibly seeing his partner as the best and strongest one in the relationship, he needs to find ways to belittle that woman so that his own light shines brighter. Others feel that Jonathan needs to step his game up when it comes to being Simone’s cheerleader, and that if Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has no problems whatsoever with being seen as Mr. Serena Williams, and singing from the mountaintops about how much he loves Serena, and how proud he is of her, he should be doing the same for his own partner. Then there were those who felt that Simone did nothing wrong in standing up for herself and for Jonathan, and that a lot of people on social media are doing too damn much by projecting their own issues and insecurities onto their marriage.
Simone’s next competition leading up to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France will be at the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships from May 30th to June 2nd, and at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials from June 27th to June 30th. We can all start counting down to when Simone reminds the world once again of her greatness, and whether or not people will respect her wishes by not telling her and everyone else on the Internet how much they don’t like or trust her husband.