Trump reinstates Presidential Fitness Test for schoolchildren

Professional athletes on Thursday joined President Donald Trump as he signed an executive order to expand his council on sports, fitness, and nutrition. The council will consist of 30 members appointed by the president for two-year terms and will develop school programs to reward excellence in physical education. The revived Presidential Fitness Test in public schools will measure students' ability through benchmarks like the number of pull-ups they can do or their time to run a mile.

The United States is hosting the 2028 Olympic Games, and Trump said he wants to make the country more active ahead of the competition. About one in five children and adolescents in the United States is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate has steadily increased over the years. The American Academy of Pediatrics introduced new guidance in 2023 that encouraged parents to tackle the issue by changing the whole family’s lifestyle.

What is the history of the fitness test? President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated the first Presidential Physical Fitness Test in 1956. The test has been adjusted over the decades and typically includes a mile run, shuttle run, sit-ups, push-ups, and the sit-and-reach. President Barack Obama discontinued the test in 2012 and replaced it with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, which assessed a student’s aerobic capacity, body composition, flexibility, muscle strength, and muscle endurance. The program ended fitness test awards and did not use fitness assessments as criteria for a student’s grade in a physical education class.

Dig deeper: Read Elizabeth Russell’s report about how over 40% of American kids have a chronic illness.