Spc. Dennis Hudson races a student during a Presidential Fitness Test at Ptarmigan Ridge Intermediate School, Orting, Wash., Oct. 2, 2013. (Sarah Enos/U.S. Army)
Schoolchildren of U.S. service members will soon be vying for an award in gym class that many of their parents and grandparents likely remember well.
The Pentagon said Tuesday it was reinstating the Presidential Fitness Test at its schools as part of a broader push by the White House to reverse a decline in health and physical fitness across America.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the fitness program will be mandatory at 161 Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) schools across 30 installations worldwide. He hopes the rest of the nation’s schools will follow DODEA’s lead, he said.
“It’s going to be mandatory for the young kids of those service members who use those schools,” he said while speaking alongside President Donald Trump, schoolchildren, professional athletes and others at an Oval Office ceremony.
“We need young, strong, healthy Americans, whether you serve in the military or any other aspect of your life,” Hegseth said. “The idea that competition is bad is the beginning of a decline of a nation.”
It’s not certain how soon the test will be implemented at DODEA schools. The current school year ends in less than a month. DODEA, which is also known as DOWEA, did not immediately respond to a query Tuesday about the expected implementation.
The Presidential Fitness Test was an annual ritual for generations of American schoolchildren, from the late 1950s, when the first tests were administered, to 2013. Students were scored on a variety of drills, including a 1-mile run, broad jump and pullups.
President Barack Obama replaced the test with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, with a focus on minimizing comparisons between children and supporting students in their pursuit of personal fitness goals and overall health. Advocates of the Obama-era program said children were more likely to stay active long term if fitness was framed around improvement rather than competition.
Sailors assigned to Naval Station Mayport, Fla., help kindergarten students at San Pablo Elementary School, with the Presidential Challenge Physical Fitness Test, March 16, 2011. (Jacob Sippel/U.S. Navy)
In July, Trump signed an executive order restoring the test in public schools. At Tuesday’s ceremony, he signed a proclamation to reestablish the Presidential Physical Fitness Award, which recognizes the top test takers across all categories in the fitness test.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published in April said Trump’s directive restoring the test included no mandates, timelines or enforcement mechanisms, leaving implementation dependent on existing state education policies. The report found many states lack the infrastructure needed for large-scale standardized fitness testing.
Despite those challenges, Trump framed the effort as part of a broader push to revive competition and athletic culture in schools.
“We’re bringing it back,” he said. “My administration is working very hard to defend America’s cherished athletic traditions and pass our values of excellence and competitiveness to the next generation.”
The awards are certificates signed by the president, which are available for download on the White House’s website. “Hit at least one target from every category and you’ll earn the Presidential Physical Fitness Award. Train hard — you’ve got this!” it says on the page.
The new fitness categories for the test are divided into core strength, cardio and upper body, with a choice of two different exercises for each one: curl-ups or planks; 1-mile run or 20-meter beep test, also known as a shuttle run; and right-angle pushups or pullups.
A 13-year-old boy, for example, could earn the presidential fitness award by holding a plank for at least 134 seconds, running the mile in 6 minutes, 50 seconds or faster and completing seven pullups, according to a fitness benchmark chart posted by the White House.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is leading the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, lamented the growing obesity rate among American youth, maintaining that nearly 80% of young people cannot meet the standards for military service.
“That should be an eye-opener for all of us,” he said, adding that competition is good for kids.
“We need to teach people how to win and how to lose and how to process victory and defeat,” he said.
