The decorated gymnast revealed on Saturday through social media that she recently endured one of her most frightening health episodes, leaving her bedridden for much of the week as she recovers.
“I’m not one to normally share things like this because I value privacy in today’s age,” Simone Biles wrote. “But almost dying wasn’t on my bingo card earlier this week. This was one of, if not the scariest, experience of my life. Especially since Jonathan (Owens) was in Indy for practices.” Owens, a pro American football player who recently signed for the National Football League’s Colts, has been married to Biles since April 2023.
“I’ve been in bed resting this week, I’ll explain sooner or later but s/o to my close circle who reached out, checked in, visited & or sent flowers,” the 11-time Olympic medallist added. “Loooovveeee y’all.” While Biles did not disclose the exact nature of the incident, she later clarified that the scare was health-related.
The three-time Olympian is no stranger to revealing her health challenges. Biles has been a champion in health advocacy, especially around mental well-being. Following her withdrawal from the Tokyo Olympics, where she suffered from the ‘twisties’, she’s destigmatised conversations about mental health and boundaries, with a firm message about the importance of self-care and emotional health.
Biles has also spoken on the physical toll elite sport has had on her body, revealing in an interview with French newspaper L’Équipe last year that she was sick for days during the Paris Olympics and experiences aches and pains. Nevertheless, she still earned three golds and a silver at the 2024 Summer Games. Almost two years on, she revealed that “it’s really nice to have this freedom. It’s a mental and physical break,” the 29-year-old told Spanish news outlet El País in an interview.
The star athlete, who embarked on a 30-city arena tour with fellow gymnasts following the Paris Games, has yet to decide whether her career will lead her back to the Olympic stage. She has left the door open for an appearance on home soil, telling CNN in a recent interview that her participation in the upcoming Los Angeles 2028 Olympics is ’50-50′.
In the meantime, Biles is taking the time to enjoy life, revealing to Cosmopolitan magazine that she’s going on impromptu girls’ trips, playing with fashion, cooking a lot, horseback riding and being on the other side of sportsdom, cheering on her football player husband.
“I feel like I’m catching up on a lot of things that I wasn’t able to do because I was always training,” Biles said. “Like, I’ve never been to prom or homecoming or the football games—any of that stuff. And now I feel like I’m doing all the sporting events, going to all of my husband’s football games and checking those off the bucket list.”
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