Trump restores the Presidential Physical Fitness Award to schools

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Tuesday to restore the Presidential Fitness Test Award and establish May 2026 as National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Grade school children across the country competed for the physical fitness award for decades until the Obama administration phased out the event in 2013, Trump said at the signing.

Trump signed an executive order last year to establish a 30-member council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition to develop programs to reward physical education excellence. The council included several professional athletes, including professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau, NFL star and Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, retired wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque, and NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor.

Trump characterized the test as the gold standard in fitness testing, endurance, strength, speed, and flexibility through various exercises. His administration was working hard to defend America’s cherished tradition of athletics and pass those important values of excellence and competition to the next generation, Trump said. Those who took the previous test and scored above the 85th percentile received the presidential award. It’s not clear if those same standards will be applied now that the test is resuming.

A group of child athletes joined Trump for the Oval Office signing, alongside administrative leaders like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also attended the signing and shared that the test would now be mandatory across 161 schools on U.S. military bases, encouraging other schools to do likewise.