Trump revives the Presidential Fitness Test, a rite of passage for schoolchildren for decades
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and SEUNG MIN KIM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday reestablished the Presidential Fitness Test for American children, a fixture of public schools for decades that gauged young people’s health and athleticism with 1-mile runs, sit-ups and stretching exercises.
“This is a wonderful tradition, and we’re bringing it back,” Trump said of the fitness test that began in 1966 but was phased out during the Obama administration.
An executive order he signed Thursday also reinvigorates a national sports council that the president stocked with former and current athletes and other figures from the sports world. Several prominent athletes joined Trump and top administration officials, including allies such as friend and pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau; and others who’ve attracted controversy such as former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor, a registered sex offender.
It’s the latest athletics-related push from Trump, an avid golfer who remains enthralled with the world of sports. He played baseball in high school and plays golf almost every weekend. Much of the domestic travel he has done this year that is not related to weekend golf games at his clubs in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia was built around attending sporting events, including the Super Bowl, Daytona 500 and UFC matches.
“I was always a person that loved playing sports. I was good at sports,” Trump said. “When you are really focused on sports, you’ve thought about nothing else. To an extent, this is one of the reasons I like golf. You get away for a couple of hours.”
The announcement also came as Trump readies the United States to host the 2025 Ryder Cup, 2026 FIFA World Cup games and the 2028 Summer Olympics. He also signed a different executive order earlier this month mandating that federal authorities clarify whether college athletes can be considered employees of the schools they play for.
Trump on Thursday said the council, known formally as the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, will also deal with various issues on college athletics, such as the transfer portal that has more easily allowed athletes to switch from school to school. The council, which will have up to 30 members, will also develop criteria for a Presidential Fitness Award. The fitness test will be administered by his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In the test, children had to run and perform situps, pullups or pushups and a sit-and-reach test, but the program changed in 2012. It evolved into the Youth Fitness Program, which the government said “moved away from recognizing athletic performance to providing a barometer on student’s health.” Then-first lady Michelle Obama also promoted her “Let’s Move” initiative focused on reducing childhood obesity through diet and exercise.
The Youth Fitness Test, according to a Health and Human Services Department website last updated in 2023 but still online Thursday, “minimizes comparisons between children and instead supports students as they pursue personal fitness goals for lifelong health.”
Among those who joined Trump on Thursday, in addition to DeChambeau and Taylor, were Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker; Swedish golfer Annika Sorenstam; and WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, the son-in-law of Trump’s education secretary, Linda McMahon.
Taylor, who has appeared on stage with Trump at campaign rallies, pleaded guilty in New York in 2011 to misdemeanor criminal charges of sexual misconduct. He was sentenced to six years of probation and ordered to register as a sex offender. He was arrested in 2021 in Broward County, Florida, and charged with failing to report a change of residence as a sex offender. He later pleaded no contest to an amended charge, was ordered to pay $261 in court fees, and the case was closed, court records show.
“I’m just proud to be on this team,” Taylor said as he briefly took the microphone at the signing. “I don’t know why, I don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing, but I’m here to serve. And I’m here to serve you.”
The NFL distanced itself from comments Butker made last year during a commencement address at a Kansas college, when he said most of the women receiving degrees were probably more excited about getting married and having children than entering the workforce and that some Catholic leaders were “pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America.” Butker also assailed Pride Month and railed against Democratic President Joe Biden’s stance on abortion.
Butker later formed a political action committee designed to encourage Christians to vote for what the PAC describes as “traditional values.”
Sorenstam faced backlash for accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump on Jan. 7, 2021, the day after rioters spurred by Trump’s false claims about his election loss to Biden stormed the Capitol in Washington.
Other well-known figures in athletics are on the council but did not attend the event Thursday. They include retired golfers Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and Roger Goodell, commissioner of the National Football League.
The return of the exam brought mixed reactions from some who study exercise.
Trump is putting a welcome focus on physical activity, but a test alone won’t make America’s children healthier, said Laura Richardson, a kinesiology professor at the University of Michigan. The exam is only a starting point that should be paired with lessons to help all students improve, she said.
“It’s not just, you get a score and you’re doomed,” said Richardson, whose teaching focuses on obesity. “But you get a score, and we can figure out a program that really helps the improvement.”
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Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Collin Binkley in Washington and John Wawrow in Buffalo, New York, contributed to this report.
