PHOENIX — As Reese Esponda prepared for the U.S. Classic gymnastics meet on July 19, a text came in from none other than Simone Biles.
“Good luck at classics babe,” Biles wrote. “Just believe in yourself. Use your power as an advantage. Controlled power is everything.”
Esponda was so ill that week that she almost withdrew before the meet. She had only resumed training five weeks earlier after spending part of the spring on crutches and in a boot with a left foot ligament injury.
Still, she made Biles proud that July night. The 17-year-old Montana native surprised herself and won Classic, the biggest victory of her young career.
Classic is the primary tune-up meet for the national championships. Seven times, Biles won Classic and nationals in the same summer.
Now Esponda has an opportunity with Biles and fellow 2024 Olympians Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles at least temporarily sitting out.
She showed her power on the first night of the Xfinity U.S. Championships, scoring 14.45 points on floor exercise, the highest tally by any woman on any apparatus.
Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
Esponda saw Biles before leaving for nationals. The seven-time Olympic gold medalist stopped by the World Champions Centre — the Biles family-owned gym in Texas where Esponda has trained the last two years — to say hi.
Biles is “kind of similar to me in the tumbling and vault and stuff,” said Esponda, who began training at WCC in spring 2024, just as Biles finished her prep there for the Paris Games. “So just knowing that she knows how to do that, she’s told me multiple times how to control my power.”
Esponda went from placing 16th at the 2025 U.S. Championships to become a contender to make the five-woman team for this October’s World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. That team will be named after a selection competition in early autumn, though results at nationals will factor into roster decisions.
The other headliners at these nationals are seasoned veterans compared to Esponda: 2024 Olympians Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera, plus two-time world champion Skye Blakely.
But with Biles, Lee and Chiles all absent, it’s very possible that a newcomer will be part of the team for October’s worlds, the first global championship with a team event since the Paris Games.
Reese Esponda’s Instagram
Reese Esponda’s first gymnastics hero: Gabby Douglas
Esponda was inspired to start gymnastics by another legend: Gabby Douglas. Esponda was only 3 when Douglas won 2012 Olympic all-around gold, but she was old enough to start doing headstands (and later shared a training group with Douglas at a camp).
Her parents put her in a preschool gymnastics class in Helena, Montana. Esponda began finding her power.
When the time came to find a gym with more elite gymnasts to foster her development, Esponda, then 15, and mom Lindsay turned to the most famous facility in the country. Esponda’s first season at WCC was also her first on the senior level, and she was thankful for the pep talks she got from Biles.
Esponda’s fairy grandmother
Esponda also gets tangible motivation from her grandmother Anita.
She totes with her to meets a “fairy box,” a jewelry-sized box from Anita that’s filled with trinkets, such as glitter and a mini wand, plus a card with a poem that reads:
Fairies are pink, purple, yellow and blue
I’ve decided to share my fairies with you.
They come out at night to watch over you
Believe in the fairies who make wishes come true!
Anita tells her that fairies will be with her at competitions. Anita has even showed up in a shirt with a fairy on it to watch her granddaughter.
“It (the box) calms me down for some reason,” said Esponda, who likes to compete with her nails painted white with a fairy on them. “It is a big superstition that I have.”
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Nick Zaccardi/NBC Sports
