Reese Esponda wins U.S. Classic in Hartford, Connecticut; earns national-team spot for U.S. Championships in Phoenix

Gymnastics: The Simone Biles text behind Reese Esponda’s breakout before U.S. Championships - exclusive

The 17-year-old left Montana on a week’s notice, transformed under new coaches and returned from injury to win the U.S. Classic – with a national team spot the next goal in Phoenix.

U.S. gymnast Reese Esponda didn’t think she’d win.

The 17-year-old walked into the U.S. Classic in Hartford, Connecticut, on 18 July focused on nothing more than what she does in the gym every day.

She walked out with the first senior elite all-around title of her career, a career-best 54.900 total in the all-around, and a win over Olympic champion Jade Carey .

“I definitely didn’t expect it,” Esponda told Olympics.com.

Part of her confident performance in Hartford may have come in the form of a text that arrived before the meet. It was from Simone Biles .

" She told me that controlled power is everything ," Esponda said. “And I agree with that.”

Biles was on vacation in the Dominican Republic when she sent it. That she sent it at all is the part Esponda keeps coming back to.

“It means a lot,” she said. " It just kind of shows the type of person she is ."

Now that momentum carries to Phoenix, where Esponda opens her U.S. Championships when the women’s competition begins on Friday (7 August).

The win at the Classic, and the calm underneath it, is the payoff of a gamble Esponda and her mother made two years ago.

Esponda grew up in Helena, Montana, and, as she told Montana Sports , started gymnastics at 3three years old after watching Gabby Douglas win all-around gold at the Olympic Games London 2012 . By early 2024 she had climbed on to the national team, but something wasn’t clicking.

“I had a really bad competition (at a selection camp),” she said. “I was getting new skills and stuff, but my consistency wasn’t improving, and I didn’t feel super confident.”

She looked at a few gyms.

She landed at World Champions Centre, the Texas home of Biles and fellow Olympic champion Jordan Chiles , for its coaching and its crowded, high-level training group.

“We actually decided on a Wednesday,” Esponda said. “And we moved like seven days later.”

It was just Esponda and her mom, Lindsay. She was 15.

“I was a little bit sad to leave my family,” she said. “But other than that, I was really excited for the opportunity.”

Two weeks after she arrived, the coaches who had drawn her there, Cécile Canqueteau-Landi and Laurent Landi , told her they were leaving the gym, as Canqueteau-Landi took the head coach job at the University of Georgia.

Esponda finished the season with the Landis, then Patrick Kiens and Daymon Jones joined the WCC staff in late 2024.

“I think it was a blessing in disguise,” she said. " They’re just like the perfect coaches for me. They make me really confident in myself ."

Kiens and Jones went to work on the parts of her gymnastics she had never prioritized.

“We focus on basics a lot, artistry,” she said. “The things that I’ve never really focused on, because I’ve always focused on the bigger skills, getting the highest D score, but never the E score.”

There was one bigger change, too.

“I do a lot more positive self-talk than I used to,” she said. “I honestly never have before.”

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - MAY 31: Reese Esponda reacts after finishing her routine in the uneven bars during the 2024 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships at Dickies Arena on May 31, 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Elsa

Chalking up next to Simone Biles

The first days at WCC were their own kind of shock.

Esponda was suddenly training alongside Biles, Chiles and three-time Olympian Melanie de Jesus dos Santos .

“It was definitely crazy,” she said. “I walked into the gym, and they were all really welcoming. They gave me a lot of good advice.”

Her beam was inconsistent then. The veterans talked her through it.

Most of those athletes have since moved on, and Esponda is now one of the older gymnasts in her group, alongside Dulcy Caylor and a wave of juniors.

“In my old gym, I really only had my coaches to ask advice,” she said. “I never had people that had experience in my situations. It’s just good to be able to talk to whoever, and they know what I’m going through.”

Italy, a boot and five weeks

Her 2026 breakout almost didn’t happen. Competing on vault in Italy this spring, Esponda landed awkwardly and tore a ligament in her foot, it was a Lisfranc injury.

“When they first told me, they said I might need surgery,” she said. “So that was a little bit scary. But I’m glad that I didn’t have to.”

She spent eight weeks in a boot, part of it on crutches, working a program her coaches built for her outside the gym. When she was cleared, she had just five weeks until the Classic.

The skills came back fast.

“I have enough muscle memory that I got all my skills back really quick,” she explained. “We weren’t sure if I was going to compete at Classics or not.”

She did. And she won.

March 28, 2026, Jesolo, Italy: Reese Esponda (USA) with her coach during Artistic Gymnastics - Jesolo Trophy, Gymnastics in Jesolo, Italy, March 28 2026 (Credit Image: © Filippo Tomasi

“That’s definitely always been the goal”

Now comes the U.S. Championships this week in Phoenix (6–9 August). Esponda knows what a good meet looks like.

“Staying on the national team, hitting eight for eight clean with good execution,” she said. “And I may add one upgrade.”

Esponda says she hopes to add back a whip to double layout on floor exercise that she competed in Italy but hadn’t had time to get back before the Classic.

The Worlds in Rotterdam sits at the end of the season.

She is thinking about where she fits on the team beyond her floor and vault: sharpening her bars and beam, being a good teammate, a good leader.

There is LA28, too, of course in the back of her mind.

“A lot can happen in two years,” she said. " I kind of just take it one day at a time and focus on what’s coming next. But that’s definitely always been the goal ."

Picture by Melissa J. Perenson

Picture by 2024 Getty Images