President Trump, flanked by star athletes, signed an executive order Thursday re-establishing the Presidential Fitness Test for public schoolchildren after the Obama administration shifted the program’s focus away from athletic feats.
“We’re officially restoring the Presidential Fitness Test and the Presidential Fitness Award – and it’s going to be a very big thing,” Trump said in remarks from the White House.
“It was a big deal,” the president said of the competition the test fostered in schools.
“This was a wonderful tradition, and we’re bringing it back.”
The fitness test was introduced by former President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 and had required students to perform situps, pullups or pushups, a sit-and-reach test and a one-mile run until it was altered in 2012.
Members of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, including professional golfers Bryson DeChambeau and Annika Sorenstam, Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor and former WWE wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who is the son-in-law of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, joined Trump at the signing ceremony.
“We have an opportunity … to literally change the fabric of kids lives,” DeChambeau, a two-time major winner and frequent Trump golfing partner, said.
At one point, Trump grabbed ahold of 56-year-old Triple H’s bicep and noted: “He is still very strong. He’s a strong guy.”
Triple H, now a WWE executive, noted that health, fitness, sports and nutrition “has been such an important part of my life” since his teenage years.
“I think learning that at a young age sets you up for success in life,” the 14-time WWE champion said. “And without it, you’re at a lesser place for it. So I look forward to the opportunity to do this.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke about the “pridde” he felt as a child when he performed well on the Presidential Fitness Test.
“You had to do sit ups, you had to do pull ups, a shuttle runs, you had to do one-mile runs, and they awarded the top 15% with a badge and with recognition and with a certificate,” Kennedy recalled. “And for me, it was a huge item of pride when I was growing up.”
“We need to re-instill that spirit of competition and that spirit and that commitment to nutrition and physical fitness,” he argued. “And I’m so grateful to President Trump for your leadership and bringing this back for our country.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had announced the executive order was incoming earlier Wednesday and said it was part of Trump’s efforts to reward “excellence in physical education” and “MAKE AMERICA FIT AGAIN!”
Under former President Barack Obama, the test “moved away from recognizing athletic performance to providing a barometer on student’s health.”
Obama’s Presidential Youth Fitness Program continued though Trump’s first term and the Biden administration.
Trump on Wednesday also said his sports council would assist with issues pertaining to college athletics and women’s sports.
“It’s a mess, what happened. What they’re doing with college football, and the fans are upset about it,” he said, lamenting that college football athletes are being “traded around like playing cards.”
