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Kim Zmeskal, OLY

@kimzb

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Mom l Owner TX Dreams Gymnastics | 1st American All-Around World Champion | 6x World/Olympic Medalist | Kim Zmeskal's TX Prime Meet & Legendz Classic

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“Ladies & gentlemen, I’m proud to say that I’m 50 years old!… And I like to kick, stretch, and kick!” Aaaannd, I love Halloween fun with these minions, bananas, colas, historical figures and our creative friends! 🎃👻

Happy Halloween, everybody! by @kimzb

Kim Zmeskal’s Texas Prime Meet & Legendz Classic is coming up soon… January 22nd-24th, 2027!

Now’s the time to order your Prime Leo to make sure it arrives in time for the holidays!
This absolute stunner was designed by our very own Riven Burdette, and trust us, you don’t want to miss out!

🔗 Link in bio to order or check out TexasPrimeMeet.com

#texasprimemeet #legendzclassic #ozoneleos by @kimzb

What a highlight reel from Caroline’s first World Championships Selection Competition!

Could y’all feel my smile through the screen while Caroline rocked her full-twisting double layout for the 1st time in competition! WOW, she made that look fun… and easy!

The impressive trick about gymnastics is making tremendous difficulty look easy and in the process convincing ourselves through earned confidence that “I can do this now” while never losing respect for the difficulty. (Whew, that’s a lot, even just writing it out.) I am so happy for all of the victories in this pursuit and excited for those that are still in-the-making for Caroline!

All 12 gymnasts who earned their place within this selection have made outstanding contributions to the bar set for our team representing USA on the floor in Rotterdam… Let’s go, Team USA!

#believe #proud #↗️trajectory #teamusa🇺🇸 by @kimzb

I’ve loved horseback riding since I was a kid. There’s just something about a beautiful afternoon, a quiet trail, and seeing the world from the back of a horse.

So when Riven suggested escaping for a few days, Kim and I needed very little convincing. We pointed the truck north and disappeared into the woods of Broken Bow, Oklahoma.

I’d never been, but it’s a perfect little escape from the ever-growing, never-sleeping DFW machine. We found a cabin tucked into the trees, complete with a fire pit, hot tub, and absolutely no ambitious plans....

Except horses.

We found a local wrangler, saddled up, gave our best John Wayne lines, and headed into the woods. Perfect weather, agreeable horses, beautiful country, and four people very happy to be somewhere other than the big city.

Sometimes you don’t need a big adventure. Just a few days, a cabin in the woods, and a horse beneath you.

Then Monday shows up and ruins everything.....so we headed home early this morning to rejoin responsible society.

One of us did the driving while the other three took on the task of a few extra minutes of sleep. by @kimzb

With another free day before Burning Man, we pointed west and headed into the Sierra Nevada.

First stop: Donner Pass....country I’ve loved hiking for many years. Coming back brought plenty of memories. The views are breathtaking, but there’s also an incredible amount of history carved into these mountains.

In the 1860s, more than 12,000 Chinese immigrants helped push the Transcontinental Railroad through the Sierra, blasting tunnels through solid granite and working in brutally unforgiving terrain. And, of course, this is where the Donner Party became trapped by an early winter in 1846. If you don’t know that story, it’s worth a read.

From there we dropped down the western side of the mountains to one of my favorite California towns.....ironically named Nevada City. An old Gold Rush town, it’s a great mix of historic buildings, Victorian homes, eclectic shops and reminders of another era.

But the best reason for coming here was seeing my longtime friends Ron and Sandee. Ron and I started our first company together way back in the early ’90s, building a successful financial healthcare company from scratch. A lot of miles and life have passed since then.

We finished the day with dinner at the historic National Exchange Hotel, old friends meeting new friends, laughing, sharing stories and celebrating a life well lived.

Some days you travel to discover someplace new. Other days you travel back through pieces of your own story.

This was a little of both. by @kimzb

A couple of free days before Burning Man? Clearly that meant we needed another adventure.

Mr. and Mrs. Z had never been to Lake Tahoe, and that simply needed to be fixed. I’ve wandered past a lot of beautiful places in this world, but Tahoe remains one of my favorite alpine lakes. There’s something about that impossibly deep blue water surrounded by the Sierra Nevada that never gets old.

Tahoe is enormous—22 miles long, 12 miles wide, and the largest alpine lake in North America. But it’s the water that really makes it extraordinary. Famous for its clarity and brilliant blue color, you can see down roughly 70 feet in parts of the lake. Fed by snowmelt and mountain streams, it has that cold, crystal-clear look that makes you want to jump in right up until you remember exactly where all that water came from.

And while Tahoe is one of the West’s great outdoor playgrounds, it doesn’t take much effort to escape the crowds, find a quiet stretch of shoreline, and simply sit for a while taking in what nature managed to create.

So, with Burning Man waiting for us a couple of days down the road, we loaded up Mr. and Mrs. Z and headed into the mountains for a day of exploring Lake Tahoe.

Because apparently our idea of “a couple of free days” is just an excuse to add another pin to the map, memories to our book, adventure to our day. 🏔️💙 by @kimzb

As Burning Man winds down, Saturday night brings the event from which it takes its name: the burning of the Man.

There is no official meaning assigned to the burn. From its beginnings on a San Francisco beach to the enormous gathering it has become, what the fire means is largely left to the person watching it.

There is an old bit of Burning Man advice that says you shouldn't make major life decisions for a few weeks after leaving the playa because your thinking may still be influenced by the experience.

But perhaps we have that backwards.

Maybe there is value in contemplating your life when the ordinary noise has been stripped away. After a week surrounded by larger than life art, extraordinary people, difficult conditions and ridiculous ideas, everyday routines give way to simpler questions.

What matters to me? What am I passionate about? Where am I going? Am I living the life I actually want to live?

And then everyone gathers in the darkness.

Fireworks explode across the playa before the Man and the enormous structure beneath him ignite. Flames climb into the night as tens of thousands watch something that has towered over the city all week slowly disappear.

For a while, you simply watch. You remember the week. You think about your place in the world and perhaps what comes next.

Eventually the structure can carry its weight no longer. The Man crashes into the flames and begins his transformation into ash.

As this 40th year of the burn ends.... The city will disappear. We will scatter across the world and return to our lives.

The question is whether we return to them exactly as we left them?

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Places to be and places to see And once again, the road awaits. by @kimzb

🎉 National Gymnastics Day 2026…

@kimzb My 50yo self loves the feeling of being upside down as much as my 6yo self did! I could likely count on 1 hand the number of weeks I have not turned upside down since the first time!

How lucky am I to have gymnastics be such a core part of my existence! How honored am I for the relationships it has lead me towards and the journeys we have embarked together!

#NGD2026 #gymnastics #upsidedownlife by @kimzb

“So what do you actually DO out there in the desert?”

I get asked that a lot. Sure, there’s art, music, DJs and parties, but is there actually anything else to do?

Good question. Glad you asked.

One afternoon the dust was blowing so hard we could barely see a few feet in front of us, so Kim and I retreated to the Big Tent. Was anything going on inside? Of course there was.

First stop was Ego Check. Yes, you read that correctly. Instead of checking a coat, you wrote down the piece of your ego that was holding you back, folded it up and handed it over. In return you received a small medallion, while your ego eventually made its way to the Temple to be burned Monday night. Only at Burning Man can you check your ego and actually get a claim ticket.

Next came Truth or Dare, although nothing at Burning Man is quite what it seems, and this definitely wasn't the version I remembered from childhood. We'll leave the details safely on the playa. Then we spun a rather unpredictable wheel and got matching hand drawn tattoos, after first confirming the Chinese characters weren't secretly going to say something that would make us blush. We did pass on the opportunity to strap a coffin to our backs and carry it around camp, although I'm sure it would have been a great conversation starter.

When the wind settled, we ventured outside, rode a circular bicycle specifically designed to take us absolutely nowhere, climbed a tower overlooking the city and headed back onto the playa.

Along the way we wandered into a tea house inside a wooden tank with a teapot for a turret, hosted by Chinese nationals. We sat for tea, met the artist and listened as he explained the idea behind this wonderfully strange creation. His hope was surprisingly simple and serious: if people from different nations would sit together, drink tea and actually talk to one another, perhaps there would be a little less misunderstanding and ultimately a little less war. A wooden tank transformed into a teapot. A weapon transformed into a place for conversation. Sometimes the message at Burning Man isn't particularly subtle, and perhaps it doesn't need to be. by @kimzb

Was it real, or is it just a memory left behind in the dust?

Once upon a time, somewhere in a great white desert, Kim and I walked out of a blinding dust storm and into the Big Top tent, where we were approached by the moon god, little g. He asked if we wanted to participate in a wedding. There was one condition: if we joined, we too would have to be married.

Given that this appeared to be our best chance of escaping the storm, and perhaps our only portal back to reality, we agreed. He bound our wrists together with a red ribbon and warned that if it became separated, we could be lost in space and time forever. Fair enough.
We climbed aboard an Art Car shaped like an angry bull with other couples similarly bound, and our fates became intertwined. Through the storm we went, green frogs dancing around us, the moon god following on his two wheeled contraption and a procession trailing through the dust.

First we chose rings. Then we traveled deeper into the storm to write our vows and dance as the wind howled around us, while through the dust the Man occasionally appeared in the distance, silently granting his approval. Another stop provided our wedding attire before we finally arrived at the Moon and the Rabbit, which is another tale for another day.
There, beneath the Moon, a story older than time unfolded. The moon god married the original couple, then summoned the rest of us forward one by one. Still connected by our red ribbon, Kim and I stood before the Moon, the Rabbit and the moon god, little g, spoke our vows and were married on the playa.
We even received a certificate, complete with terms and conditions. Apparently even fairy tales require paperwork.

And then everyone disappeared into the dust. The moon god, the frogs, the angry bull and our fellow newlyweds were simply gone. Kim and I were left standing in the storm, wondering which direction was home and asking each other, did that really just happen?
Perhaps.

Or perhaps some adventures aren't meant to be completely explained. Sometimes you simply follow an angry bull into a dust storm, marry the person you love beneath the Moon, and trust that eventually you will find your way home. by @kimzb

I tell people all the time that Burning Man is what you make of it. It can be the world’s largest art show, a rave in the desert, a camping trip with friends, a test of self reliance, a curiosity field trip, or simply an adventure into the unknown. Sometimes it can be all of those things in the same day.

One of our favorite evenings was also one of the simplest.

Somewhere on the playa we came across two old couches suspended by chains from what looked like giant swing sets. They hung about four feet off the ground, so getting into one required a little effort and perhaps a complete lack of dignity. But once Kim and I climbed aboard, we settled in, started swinging and watched the sun slowly disappear across the playa.

Every so often another burner would wander past, give us a push and continue on their way.

We watched other groups stop by look for a way to get in the couch take pictures, laugh, talk and eventually move on.

We watched the activity around us and felt the desert temperature fall almost in sync with the setting sun. We talked about the day, the art we had discovered, the people we had encountered and the things we had experienced.

There was nowhere we needed to be and nothing we needed to do next.

For all the enormous art, fire, music and beautiful chaos that surrounds you at Burning Man, sometimes the moments that stay with you are the quiet ones you never planned.

As the last of the sun disappeared, we decided it had simply been a day well lived. by @kimzb

Let’s talk Art Cars, or Mutant Vehicles.

And there is probably no better place to start than El Pulpo Magnífico, one of the most recognizable and talked about Mutant Vehicles ever to roam the playa.

Its complexity is mind boggling. El Pulpo carries roughly 200 pounds of liquid propane, feeding ten tentacles that erupt with enormous bursts of flame. The demand for propane is so intense that the tanks can begin to freeze, so heat from the engine exhaust is used to keep them warm. The tentacles move, the eyes move, and as this enormous mechanical octopus crawls through the darkness, you can actually feel the heat radiating from it as fire explodes into the night sky.

At Burning Man, almost any idea is welcome, but putting a vehicle onto the playa is another matter. Mutant Vehicles must meet specific design and safety requirements and be licensed through Burning Man’s Department of Mutant Vehicles before they are allowed to roam Black Rock City.

During the day, smaller Art Cars crisscross the playa carrying people from one distant art installation to another. But when darkness falls, the big ones come alive. Lights switch on, flames begin to fly and sound systems capable of outfitting a nightclub start rolling across the desert.

Many are essentially rolling concert venues, complete with DJ booths, enormous speaker arrays and dance floors. They wander from place to place until one stops somewhere in the darkness, a DJ begins a set, and suddenly bicycles start appearing from every direction. Burners who were headed somewhere else stop, gather around, dance for a while and eventually disappear back into the black of night.

There is no concert hall. No street. No permanent stage. No Neon advertising.

Just music pouring into an enormous empty desert, fire illuminating the darkness, and a crowd of strangers who happened to find themselves in the same place at the same time.

Then the Art Car starts moving again, and everyone continues on their way.

A moment in time, a shared experience that will never be duplicated, united as one in the joy of music, there's a reason that almost every apocalyptic movie has this scene where humans come together, uniting by @kimzb