Au Revoir: Golden Retriever Beacon Shares Gold Medals With Biles at Paris Olympics

The US women’s gymnastics team completed a strong Olympics this week, capturing 10 medals in Paris. The thrill of victory and its agonizing opposite can be stressful in the extreme, but the team has had a comforting presence on their side: a four-year-old golden retriever named Beacon.

Beacon, an emotional support dog based in Pasadena, California, has been soothing the nerves of athletes and coaches for months, from the Olympic trials in Minneapolis to the big show itself in Paris. A good belly rub can go a long way to calm frazzled competitors, according to science: petting a dog actually lowers cortisol, the stress hormone. Beacon is said to be drawn to two things: the sound of his own name and his innate sense that someone needs him.

“He will turn on a dime without seeing who it is,” Beacon’s owner Callahan Molnar tells ESPN. “He picks up on the stress and will pull to that person immediately.” Molnar says that therapy dogs like Beacon are load-bearing empaths. “They absorb the stress of the people they're relieving the stress off of, so even though he might be lying still for two hours, he's wiped out afterwards.”

Beacon is just one part of USA Gymnastics’ mental health program, which also includes a team of therapists to work with athletes. Ever since superstar Simone Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her mental health, the issue has been a central concern for the team. If their success in Paris is any indication, they appear to have it licked.

By now Beacon has fans far beyond the gym team. His Instagram account – @goldendogbeacon – has nearly 50,000 followers. Now that the Olympics are done he will go back to work as a pet-assisted therapy dog at Huntington Hospital in California, where there’s plenty of cortisol that needs lowering.

Photo credit: Tracey Callahan Molna via Instagram